Lizards and a Bufo from Morocco

[Mike Richardson]

Hi all

I've just returned from a mammal watching trip to Morocco and Western Sahara and I would appreciated some help identifying the following herps.

The first is a Bufo I found at Oued Massa (near Agadir). It was with a couple of Bufo mauritanicus. I was thinking B. viridis although someone else suggested B. brongersmai.

The lizards were all found in Western Sahara along the N3 road leading from Dakhla (coast) to Aswerd (200km in land). All were approx. 30km from Aswerd.

Tarentola annularis or T. ephippiata?

No idea!

Obviously Acanthodactylus. A. dumerili or A. aureus?


Thank you for any help

Best wishes

Mike

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Hi Mike,
1/ its Bufo boulengeri => very similar to Bufo viridis
2/ no idea, some Tarentola sp. of course
3/ Stenodactylus petrii
4/ no idea, Acanthodactylus sp.

[Alexandre Roux]

Last one looks like A. dumerili (but I just say what I'm thinking with the jizz !)

[Mike Richardson]

Many thanks for the help guys, it's greatly appreciated.

[Alexandre Roux]

Using jizz too because I don't know if the white marks are a good criteria, I think your second picture is T.annularis

[Gabriel Martínez]

You must be partner of John Sadler...

Yes, it´s Tarentola annularis, the most impressive species of Tarentola I have ever seen. Please see the awesome photo of Crochet in this link:
http://www.moroccoherps.com/en/ficha/Ta ... annularis/

The toad is Bufotes boulengeri. The second gecko is Stenodactylus petrii and the Acanthodactylus... this genus is really difficult for IDs only with photos. Probably Mario, the owner of this forum, can identify this lizard. Like Alexandre, I think that it´s dumerili because it was found far of the coast (A. aureus is mainly restricted to the coastal sandy areas)

[Mario Schweiger]

Hi,

the Acanthodactylus looks very like a aureus male (colour, markings and [but not good to see on picture] a large 4th supraocular).
Maybe you could post a crop out of the head to be 100% sure?

Mario

[Mike Richardson]

Thanks for the additional replies, they're all very helpful.

Mario- here is a crop of the head. Does this help? Any additional comments will be greatly appreciated.

Croplizard.jpg (197.68 KiB) Viewed 5867 times

Gabriel - Yes, I went with John. While we both appreciate reptiles, we're not too good at identification. However, the link you give is fantastic! It will help a lot.

Kind regards

Mike

[Mario Schweiger]

Yes, aureus!
There are some inland records of aureus in northern Western Sahara, and also some east of Dakhla (map in Geniez et al., 2004)

[Mike Richardson]

Many thanks Mario. I really appreciate all the help I've received on this forum.