April 12th 2011, myself and 3 friends flew out from Liverpool in the UK to Madrid, Spain for a 5 day herping trip. We would be meeting with a veterinarian and fellow reptile photographer from Alicante, along with our local expert and guide for the trip, who would be showing us around for the duration of our stay. It was our intention to find and photograph our target species, Lataste's viper, Vipera latastei, along with any other species of reptile and amphibian that could be found on this short trip.

We spent five days visiting four main sites during our time here. Without going into too much detail about the trip, I thought I would share some photos of the animals that we found. These images are in no particular order.

The team, L-R Mark O'shea, myself, Wolfgang Wuster, Edgar Wefer, David Nixon and Juan Timms. I have altered the photo to hide the sign in the background, so not to give away our exact location. Photo by Edgar Wefer.



A few habitat shots





Psammodromus algirus



Bedriaga's skink, Chalcides bedriagae



Iberian worm lizard, Blanus cinereus - a very unusual fossorial species.



Viperine snake, Natrix maura. We found several of these over the course of the trip.



Another Viperine snake



Mark photographing one of the viperine snakes



Ocellated lizard, Timon lepidus



Moorish gecko, Tarentola mauritanica



Buthus occitanus



Sharp-ribbed newt, Pleurodeles waltl



Triturus pygmaeus



Ladder snake, Rhinechis scalaris. I found this snake cruising out in the open mid-day.



And finally, our target species of the trip, Lataste's viper, Vipera latastei. Three were seen in total, but only one was photographed.







A couple of 'family photos' taken by Edgar Wefer

David Nixon and myself at one of the sites. We found 18 species in one night at this location



I'm not quite sure what we were trying to catch here, but it was likely a small lizard

.

Thanks,

Tom

Your photos make Spain look like a great herping destination (and for other things as well). How many species of reptiles and amphibians are there?

I also really like the colours on that Triturus pygmaeus.

Nice photos and congratulations on the Lataste's.

Looks like it was a great trip! LOVE that Lataste's...beautiful!!! Was Mark your guide for the trip or just a friend that joined you? (I will likely be going to Spain in '13 and would love to hook up with someone/guide for some Lastaste's and other snakes.)

Awesome post Tom, some really lovely photos there. How big was the Lataste's?

Thanks very much guys.



Mark came out with us from the UK.



Thanks Tim, it was around 50cm in length.

cheers,

Tom

Awesome, man! Looks like a good crew you had with you as well.

Spectacular. I love the Natrix, in particular, reminds me so much of our native Nerodia.

Thanks for sharing!

Wow herping with WW and O'Shea, what a trip that would have been.

O, shit! I didn't realise who that was. Great herping companion to have!

Cool post, you don't see too much Spanish stuff on here. Love that Triturus pygmaeus.

This was a great post. You had the best of company too. I love Spain.

Very nice!

You might want to check out this as well
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11673

Also, I would kindly like to invite you to join the European forum at fieldherping.eu and repost your story (both fora use the same code, so it would only require a simple copy/paste job).

My sentiments exactly...

I love that emergency-hued Triturus. Amazing!