FieldHerpForum

Hi everyone,

as I don't want to hijack woongson's thread, I decided to start a new one so people wishing to discuss Taiwanese snakes may do so without feeling guilty or unleashing the moderator's fury

First off, I'd like to thank Warren one more time for bringing me here; he mentioned this forum to me after seeing one of my pix on Naturescapes.net. I've now spent some serious time browsing this extraordinary cornucopia of herp knowledge here, and still barely seem to have touched the surface. I've also already ordered three books recommended in the Reading Room and just about managed to stop myself from buying six more...talk about a kid in a candy store!

To recap my introduction: I've been based in Taiwan for the last twenty years, and I live in a semi-rural area 20 miles north of Taipei where I encounter snakes quite frequently. I co-run a localization agency for video games, and since we need to synch our office hours with those of our mostly European clients, I never start work before 3 pm, which means lots of time for morning walks, either in the plains between our house and the ocean, or the mountains of the National Park in our backyard.

I don't exactly count as a 100% hardcore herper; I'm more of a Victorian generalist, interested in pretty much everything nature has to offer in the tropics: I grow carnivorous plants, love arthropods and birds, but reptiles and amphibians have a very special place in my heart, and Taiwan is sure crawling with them (lousy pun fully intended). As Warren pointed out, there's a startling diversity for a small island; and it's indeed due to the elevation change. On this little speck of rock, a mere 200 miles long, you'll find a mountain range stretching the entire length of the island, with over 100 summits above 3000 meters (~10.000 feet), among them the highest one in SE Asia, plus oodles of only marginally smaller ones. This in combination with the half-tropical location (the Tropic of Cancer runs through the middle of the island) provides an ecological richness that ranges from coastal mangrove swamps to alpine meadows. The biological diversity is also present in plants, birds and pretty much everything else, and the fact that Taiwan is an island makes for a lot of endemic species and subspecies.

A while ago, fascinated with all these wonderful local serpents, I whipped up a very utilitarian (read: dilettante) site with information in English and Chinese about every known snake species on the island. It's the first site of its kind, and I made it mainly for laypersons looking for quick reference. (Disclaimers: (1) all texts and pix on this page were culled with permission from other sites. (2) Yes, I know, many of the Latin names have been revisited and changed since I put this up two years ago. But it still adheres to the Taiwanese nomenclature, and they're insisting their versions are the correct ones )

As far as my herpetological knowledge goes, I'm still much more awestruck with snakes than knowledgeable about them. However, I'm very lucky to have a photography teacher at the Taiwan Nature Photographer's Association who's not only a professor of ecology, but also an expert and author/co-author of quite a number of books on Taiwanese herps...so if you have any specific questions, I can always ask him, hehe. Another great source for field herping in Taiwan is this forum. Even if you don't read Chinese, you can search for Latin names, or just browse their multitude of often very nice pictures.

A few more pix of wild Taiwanese herps can be found on my photo blog. Only a few so far, but more will follow, I'm still learning the ropes of my new DSLR...

@Warren: That's a very nice Enhydris plumbea....or is it?

@Kevin: I've never been to Hainan, only to a few places along the neighboring South China coast. Sadly, the only snakes I saw there were captive and waiting to be tossed into a wok. I went there on business and never had a chance to hit the outdoors. If you (or anyone else) are planning on visiting/herping in Taiwan and looking for travel info, let me know, I'll be more than glad to be of assistance.

Again, thanks very much for the warm welcome, y'all!

Cheers,

Hans
PS: If this sort of post rather belongs in the Board Line, I apologize. Please move it, if necessary.

Welcome!

Ryan

Nice to see people from TW. I am from TW too. Herped in TW for 10 yrs, now I'm living in CA.
It would be great to see ur herp photos from TW to refresh my memory.

Jack

Hello Hans, and welcome to the forum. I stumbled on your website a number of months ago and drooled over some of the serpents you've photographed.
Looks like Taiwan is a great place to herp - I hope you continue to share your finds with us (and folks are always interested in other flora and fauna as well).

cheers, Mike

Hi Hans,

You are correct on the Enhydris plumbea ID. Thanks for the lovely post; I've introduced several members to the forum and always appreciate being thanked so graciously.

You describe yourself as a Victorian generalist; I think you will find that many, perhaps most, members of the forum share your love and wonder for the natural world. The posts are generally herp-centred here (it is a herp forum, after all), but insect, bird, and other photos usually draw much appreciation. Hunter-MX in particular often assembles comprehensive natural history posts from Mexico that are well-loved by the forum.

There is a surprising amount of experience here and you may find compatriots in Taiwanese herping (and indeed one (book?)worm has already crawled out). Please remember that most members do not live in Taiwan and so the herps you may be sick of are rare treats for us. Even minnows and other small creatures hold an exotic fascination for North Americans.

I'm already thankful for your contributions and I look forward to many more.

Best Regards,

Warren

Hi everyone,

thanks for all the nice replies!

@Jack: I'm not actually from Taiwan, but from Düsseldorf, Germany. I came here in 1988 for a language course and stayed for the food and the Great Green Outdoors. So I understand very well that "even minnows and other small creatures hold an exotic fascination" for people from less exotic areas, and that's probably one of the reasons I love herps so much. This frog, for instance, is as common as dirt over here, but the name alone fascinates me to no end. Or take this one: Again, nothing spectacular about it at first glance, but it's endemic to this little island here, which makes it infinitely special in my eyes!

I've decided to dust off a few pix I took with the compact cam I used before the DSLR. I guess they might be of interest, even if they're rather crappy, so here goes. Most of them are around 500 KB, and due to the original quality not suitable for further shrinking, so I decided to just include the links instead of directly posting the photos.

AMPHIBIANS:

Among the 40 or so frog species in Taiwan, there's quite a large number of endemic ones, such as this lovely fellow, the Taipei Tree Frog, Rhacophorus taipeianus.

Another endemic frog, Buergeria robusta.

Among the non-endemic ones is Swinhoe's Brown Frog, Rana swinhoana. Seems like half the bird and herp species on the island are named after Robert Swinhoe, but I guess a naturalist of his caliber deserves it.

Sauters Brown Frog, Rana sauteri (aka John's Groove-toed Frog, Rana johnsi), another species found in Taiwan, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

A Rice Field Frog, Rana limnocharis, ubiquitous all over SE Asia. This species comes in all sorts of hues and patterns.

Two kinds of toads live on the island. This is the Spectacled (Asian) Toad, Bufo melanostictus, aka The Sumo Toad (just kidding) .

LIZARDS:

Well over 40 lizard species roam Taiwan, but they're all rather small, like this Swinhoe's Japalura, Japalura swinhonis (see, there's that name again!) or these Hekou's Geckos, an adult and a juvenile. Lots of skinks, too, e.g. this Chinese Skink, Eumeces chinensis.

SNAKES:

Last summer, our boys brought home from the schoolyard a baby Taiwan Leopard Snake (aka Taiwan Kukri Snake), Oligodon formosanus, a snake endemic to the island and specialized in hunting and eating reptile and bird eggs. We kept him in a terrarium for a week, but had to put him back in the wild when when we caught our cats drawing up T-Day plans for an invasion of the snake tank.

This is a Checkered Keelback (aka Asiatic Water Snake), Xenochrophis piscator. Here's a closer portrait.

Three shots from a photo session I had with a Smooth Green Snake: One; Two; Three. Regarding your question about their diet, Bill: my Taiwanese snake literature reports that this species eats mainly grubs, worms and small insects. However, the books I have are all field guides and don't say anything about their diet in captivity. If you want, though, I can ask around. There's quite a number of people here keeping these guys as pets.

A Dhaman Rat Snake, Ptyas mucosa. To quote from my blog entry: "This Ptyas mucosa is by far the largest serpent I've ever encountered in Taiwan: about two meters (6 1/2 feet) of shining, angry glory (note the swollen neck). Having been awoken from his semi-hibernation by an unusually hot December day, he was still quite groggy and barely able to cross the road, which is where I came in. Judging by its size, he was at least ten years old, so it was just like helping an old lady across the road. I took the liberty to grab a few close-ups as compensation for my chivalric behavior." Here's a pic of the entire creature.

TURTLES:

Chinese culture is dominant on Taiwan, so it's only natural that we have many turtles (half of the animals at the large reptile house at the Taipei Zoo are turtles). This is a Chinese Stripe-Necked Turtle, Ocadia sinensis. Quite common, but hard to get close to. Even kingfishers are less paranoid than these guys! Another one, slightly larger.


You can find more local flora and fauna at my photo blog, such as Taiwan's largest spider and an account of a four-day road trip across the Central Mountain Range, where at the right time of year you can enjoy banana plantations and snow-covered roads on the same day. No herp photos there, I think, but it should give you an idea of the ecological diversity - all these travel pix were shot in an area covering less than 80 x 120 miles.

That's it for the moment, I'll now have to wait until the rains subside in a week or so before I can go herping again. If I've misidentified any of the critters above, please let me know!



Cheers,

Hans

You just don't look like a typical Taiwanese. But considering living in TW for over 20 yrs, you are actually a Taiwanese.

There might be some truth in that, Jack. Once you start bringing dried squid and seaweed as gifts for the children when visiting family in the West, you know you're on the road to doom

Great photos. I like how your blog photos get huge when you click on them. Sweet photo of the Japalura; we just had a shallow depth of field theme on the image lab and that photo would have been perfect for it.