Argentina and Brazil

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dpurcell
Posts: 10
Joined: July 16th, 2011, 8:32 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Argentina and Brazil

Post by dpurcell »

G'day everyone!

Another Aussie herper here, that has enjoyed lurking on this site for some time now and have to commend everyone for the quality of posts on this forum.

Anyway i thought it's about time that i stepped up and made a contribution myself. This is my first time posting so hopefully every thing will come out ok and i dont post some crazy sized images or something. Feel free to let me know if you have any tips for improvements with the set out of a post. Oh yeah, forgive me on the standards of the following pictures, I know they are a far cry from many of the quality images posted here but thought people would still be happy to see some critters from an area that is not to often covered on the forum.

Also feel free to correct any ID's.

Ok formalities out of the way let's move onto the Herps.

These are all shots taken from May to June 2008 on a trip to Argentina and Brazil. I flew from Sydney to Buenos Aires where I hung out with friends in the city for 2 or 3 days and then jumped back onto a plane to Resistencia in the state of Chaco. Hired a car here and went and checked out a couple of the local national parks, didn't see much in the way of herps because of bloody cold temperatures but saw some other cool wildlife such as Capybaras and my first ever Otter.

From Resistencia i jumped on a over night bus to Iguazu Falls on the Argentinian/Brazilian border, the days were warmer here but the nights still cold. The falls were simply amazing especially for someone coming from such a dry continent. I wont bore you with too many waterfall shots but just wan't to set the scene.

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

The volume of water moving over the falls was awesome.

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]


Some of the critters seen in the park surrounding the falls.

Tropidurus torquatus
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Elachistocleis ovalis a cool little Microhylid.
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Hemidactylus mabouia an intoduced gecko.
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Also saw some mammal's around the park including Red Brocket Deer, Brown Capuchin Monkey's and groups of these Coati's raiding the rubbish bins.
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

After leaving Iguazu I travelled for 25 hours by bus to the city of Cuiaba to check out the Brazilian Pantanal. Heading south from the city on a dirt road that cuts 145km into the Pantanal known as the Transpantaneira and apparently cross 125 ricketty wooden bridges. I was dissapointed to find the first snake of the trip DOR.

Clelia sp.?
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Stopping at one of the wooden bridges i spotted this Hylid that i haven't identified

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]


Not long after seeing this frog i spotted from the car my favourite herp of the trip, basking on a bank on the road verge.

Dracaena paraguayensis
[urlImage][/url]

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Alot of Ameiva ameiva would dart across the road in front of the car but unfortunately their speed out matches my photography skills and i failed at getting a shot. When we finally arrived at our hotel we refreshed ourselves with a few ice cold beers. The hotel was built over the water and quite a few Caiman yacare were hanging around.

Hotel
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Caiman yacare
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]


That night while closely observing a Brazilian Tapir i heard one of the hotel staff yell out "Sucuri", knowing this was Portuguese for Anaconda i raced over to where the call came from but was disappointed not to find a Eunectes but at least it was still a snake though.

Helicops leopardinus
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Walking on a track through some forest on the hotels property we came across Howler Monkey's, Black Tailed Marmoset's and this Six Banded Armadillo.
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

While walking along the track we must have disturbed some predator that fled and left this beautiful snake writhing around in a bad way.

Leptophis ahaetulla
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

and then found this crossing the track.

Liophis typhlus
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Another tiny snake was found.

Psomophis genimaculatus
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

A couple of Bufo/Rhinella species. Can any one confirm the current name in use for this genus?

Bufo schneideri
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Not sure on the ID of this but thought it was an interesting animal.

No ID?
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

A few invertebrates.

Big spider
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Big Beetle
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Something with feathers.

Jabiru
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Something with wings.
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]


The coolest mammal if not the coolest animal of the whole trip.

Giant Anteater
[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Well thats about it, hope you enjoyed! That took awhile to put together and I think i'll appreciate how much effort is put into others posts now. Think i need one of these:

[img]http://i1080.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

Cheers
Dean
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Josh Holbrook
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Josh Holbrook »

Hey man,

Good post - I just got back from Paraguay recently so some of those species look mighty familiar.

Your Clelia can't be ID'd without scale counts - It could be either Clelia or Bioruna - they're basically indistinguishable. Do you remember if its eyes looked remarkably brown in person or not?

The common name I've heard on schneideri is a "Rococo Toad," That's the Bolivian (Quechua?) term for toad, so a little redundant - but hey, people call Cane Toads "Bufo toads" here. :beer:

Edit - You were looking for the current Genus name, not common name - my bad. Rhinella is the term of the day - but South American taxonomy is even more screwed up than North American taxonomy.

Your other toad looks like something in the Bufo granulosa group - probably Bufo bergi - http://www.faunaparaguay.com/rhinellabergi.html


Loved the post - The Paraguay/argentina/southern Brazil area is too few posted here.
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monklet
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by monklet »

Love that Jabiru shot! :thumb: The Helicops leopardinus is very suggestive of Eunectes, even the head shape. ...interesting.
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withalligators
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Joined: June 29th, 2010, 6:50 am
Location: northern Westchester co., NY

Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by withalligators »

The pantanal is maybe my favorite spot in the whole world. Thanks for posting this. And the caiman lizard is amazing. I still haven't seen one in the wild.
Cheers,
Alex
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geckoguy747
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Location: san bernardino mtns

Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by geckoguy747 »

dude! that Dracaena is so awesome!!! excellent post!
josh
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snakegirl24
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by snakegirl24 »

Lovely pics! Looks like an awesome place to visit!
The caimen lizard would have to be my favorite though! Soo adorable![/color]
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Martti Niskanen
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Martti Niskanen »

Great first post. Looking forward to more.
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Mike Pingleton »

Great post! Welcome to the forum. Awesome Dracaena.

-Mike
dpurcell
Posts: 10
Joined: July 16th, 2011, 8:32 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by dpurcell »

Thank's for the kind words everyone.

That Dracaena was an awesome beast and quite an impressive size.

Josh: I appreciate the info you have given me. Paraguay sounds like a great place, probably a bit more off the tourist trail than Argentina and Brazil which is appealing. Hope you are going to make a post from your trip there?

I can't remember the eye colour of the Clelia/Boiruna. It was a few years ago now and thats the only shot i took.

Yeah i thought that those toads were Rhinella now but when i was putting this post together i saw i site that still referenced them as Bufo and was unsure what to use.


Monklet: That Helicops does look alot like a little miniature Eunectes I can definately understand how someone could make that mistake.


Alex: The Pantanal is an awesome place and i hope to spend alot more time there next time i visit.
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Jon Wedow
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Jon Wedow »

Any reccomendations on books/fieldguides from these parts? Thanks for sharing your photos of herps we seldomly see here!
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Josh Holbrook
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Josh Holbrook »

Jon Wedow wrote:Any reccomendations on books/fieldguides from these parts? Thanks for sharing your photos of herps we seldomly see here!

I've got a couple extra Paraguay field guides laying around that are only available in country. Email me if you're interested.
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justinm
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by justinm »

monklet wrote:Love that Jabiru shot! :thumb: The Helicops leopardinus is very suggestive of Eunectes, even the head shape. ...interesting.
I thought so as well, it really threw me off to see that it wasn't an anaconda. I loved seeing the Dracaena.
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Fieldnotes
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Fieldnotes »

What an Amazing adventure!!! :beer:
dpurcell
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Joined: July 16th, 2011, 8:32 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by dpurcell »

Jon Wedow wrote:Any reccomendations on books/fieldguides from these parts? Thanks for sharing your photos of herps we seldomly see here!
The only book I have for this region is, Marques, Eterovic, Strussmann & Sazima (2005) Serpentes Do Pantanal. This book is in poruguese
and only covers snakes. Also it doesn't have any key's or much other information for identification, basically just an image of the animal and it's taxonomic name. So it's not that great but was better than nothing or me.
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Jeremy Westerman
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Re: Argentina and Brazil

Post by Jeremy Westerman »

[quote="dpurcell"]Monklet: That Helicops does look alot like a little miniature Eunectes I can definately understand how someone could make that mistake.
quote]
Agreed. I would be yelling sucuri if I saw that
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