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AUSTRALIA
October 2016
 4 of 4
AUSTRALIA
October 2016
 4 of 4
Nighttime we would also go looking and listening for frogs.  I think we can all agree that this one looks exactly like its local name.   The granite slabs by the stream are dotted with golden males calling and courting the larger brown females.    These were the largest skinks we saw.  Hard to tell without anything for scale, but think of an old-fashioned flashlight with two D-batteries.   When the folks camping next door heard us talking about snakes, they called us over to take a look at this visitor crawling through their campsite.  Like most Aussie snakes, it’s an elapid.     Did I mention that Australia has skinks? These well-fed Water Dragons were happily at home by ponds in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens.    Back in forest, skinks and more skinks.     As we’re hiking, Steve points to a spot and comments about it being just the right place for a Marsh Snake.  And as he’s speaking, suddenly he realizes that there, in fact, is a Marsh Snake.  Another one of those, “they look so harmless” elapids.   Similar to the Granite Belt Leafed-tails, but this variety is found in the forest on trees.  Last herp of the trip, a very nice finishing touch.         
Pobblebonk aka Eastern Banjo Frog Limnodynastes dumerilii
Eastern Stoney Creek Frog Litoria wilcoxii
Smooth Toadlet Frog  Uperoleia laevigata
Clicking Froglet Crinia signifera
Eastern Sedge Frog Litoria fallax
Ornate Burrowing Frog Platyplectrum ornatum
Emerald-spotted Tree Frog Litoria peronii
Cunningham's Skink  Egernia cunninghami
Eastern Crevice Skink Egernia mcpheei
Yellow-faced Whip Snake  Demansia psammophis
Red-throated Skink Acritoscincus platynotus
Challenger’s Shade Skink Saproscincus challengeri
Beech Skink Harrisoniascincus zia
Garden Skink Lampropholis delicata
Murray’s Skink Karma murrayi
Marsh Snake  Hemiaspis signata
Southern Leaf-tailed Gecko Saltuarius swaini