A mystery Phrynobatrachus, found at moderately high elevation. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
Among squamates, there were many highlights, including\u00a0Dipsadoboa flavida<\/em>, a gorgeous treesnake; Mochlus afer<\/em>, a stunning skink; Cordylus tropidosternum<\/em>, a bizarre spiny lizard (at higher elevation); and of course the chameleons Rieppeleon brevicaudatus<\/em> (also at higher elevation) and Chamaeleo dilepis<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rieppeleon brevicaudatus. I found this shedding individual by accident while looking for frogs during the day. I just got very very lucky. It was the only individual of the trip. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
Cordylus tropidosternum has a fascinating defensive behaviour where it simply goes more or less limp, and leaves its arms to the side. I guess it relies on that excellent armour to protect it. <\/div> <\/div>
Dipsadoboa flavida as found, presumably hunting for Arthroleptides on this small waterfall. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
I expected Chamaeleo dilepis to be common, but this was the only individual I found, a young female. Still, a gorgeous animal. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
Mochlus afer was one of the last species I found, under a flagstone at the UEMC. A really beautiful ‘writhing’ skink. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
Lygodactylus picturatus was abundant, but damn hard to catch! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
On the whole, a very rewarding trip! I hope to be able to return to the Udzungwa mountains again, and especially the higher elevation reaches of the forest, to do some proper research on its fascinating and unique herpetofauna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have just returned from three weeks at the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre (UEMC) in central Tanzania, just outside Udzungwa Mountains National park, where I have been teaching as one of four main lecturers on a Field Training Course, part of the Erasmus+ project ‘Developing curricula for biodiversity monitoring and conservation in Tanzania’ (CONTAN). This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,5,8],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSC3635_Rieppeleon-brevicaudatus_Udzungwa-MidElevation_Uncollected.jpeg?fit=2500%2C1668","author_info":{"display_name":"Mark D. Scherz","author_link":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/archives\/author\/markscherz"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSC3635_Rieppeleon-brevicaudatus_Udzungwa-MidElevation_Uncollected.jpeg?fit=2500%2C1668","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5266"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5290,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions\/5290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markscherz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}