MOROCCO TRIP 27 april-6 may

[Guillaume Gomard]

Yes, but its confused. By pictures its seems a perfect trip full of herps but its wrong. I dont know why this is probably one of my trips to Morocco with lower activity. We just found some species, but with many LUCK, some very interesting (when you see all the photos, you could think: this man is a stupid! how many animals and he is talking stupid things of low activity! But I promise that we were very frustated in the trip, sometimes 3 or 4 herps in a day!! very cool species ok, but just 4. Nothing under stones except in the high places, nothing crossed at night, etc...). Usually in final march or first days of april we found more than 20 Uromastyx, more than 40 Agama, many Psammophis, etc... but in this trip we have found only 2 Uromastyx, 5 Agama and 0 Psammophis alive. And just 5 snakes DOR (incredible!!! usually more than 15 snakes DOR). I dont know the factors: maybe a cold april, full moon for nocturnal snakes, excepcionally dry autumn-winter as Spain, etc...

Hi Gabri,

I'm looking forward to reading your report. The legionis is a true beauty, I was also surprised to see that it is present up the Tarroudant. Anyway, congrats! For me it was also surprising to see only 3-4 snakes DOR, I was expecting much more.

Guillaume

[Gabriel Martínez]

was also surprised to see that it is present up the Tarroudant

I discovered Taroudant in a old unpuplished papers of Valverde. He wrote that in Taroudant are typical the green Daboia mauritanica and its also possible to find Naja. Last june I was there and talking with people and showing the book most people only recognize Malpolon monspessulanus and Hemorrhois hippocrepis. And at night I found a DOR female Malpolon with a bird in the mouth, a male Malpolon m. monspessulanus x saharatlanticus (in Souss Valley are typical intermediate individuals; http://www.moroccoherps.com/en/ficha/Ma ... pessulanus), a DOR Macroprotodon sp. and a recent DOR Hemorrhois hippocrepis. Valverde also wrote that Naja began to be very scarcity in Agadir and north areas due to agriculture fields so I though that maybe Naja had dissapeared in Agadir-Taroudant areas. But last august I was talking in Tantan with one of the Valverde Aissaoua and he told me that he knows many Aissaoua (snake hunters) that continue hunting Naja in places as Agadir, Taroudant, Ouarzazate (redish Najas?)... So we tried again in Taroudant and we were succesful with Naja. Taroudant is quite different to Guelmim: many private propierties, many orange fields... but with many water, refuges and preys (birds, mammals, lizards, frogs) snakes have high densities! Guelmim is good if snakes are actived because you find tracks. Taroudant is better in this trip for Naja because they weren´t actived, so we found it flipping! In Guelmim there are not things to flip, whereas Taroudant is full of Stones, plastics, ruins... I will return there next august for "green" Daboia!

[Mario Schweiger]

Friends of mine, last year found a huge (160+ cm) Naja DOR on the road north of Tamri Bay, which is the northern most place, where they occur!

Its difficult, to compare herps activity from Israel or other regions with Moroccain interior.
An example: In 2009 friends have been in Oman at the end of February and found a lot of species, also in the mountains.
You never should try this in Ouarzazate or Merzouga at this time - except you are happy with some A. impalearis and Geckos
Winter 1986/87 I´ve been in Ouarza from Christmas until Holy Kings. Only some Ptyodactylus, a very few Acanthos and Agama. Only one Psammophis and 1 maura by flipping.

Mario

[Gabriel Martínez]

Naja DOR on the road north of Tamri Bay

Yes, strange population!!

Its difficult, to compare herps activity from Israel or other regions with Moroccain interior.An example: In 2009 friends have been in Oman at the end of February and found a lot of species, also in the mountains.You never should try this in Ouarzazate or Merzouga at this time - except you are happy with some A. impalearis and Geckos

Yes, but Oman is aprox 2.500kms south of Israel. If we visit Mauritanie in february maybe we also find many herps actived. I have talked a lot with Israelian people and the weather seems "quite" similar to Morocco, with inactivity/low activity in winter, beginning of activity in march-april, may the best, summer very hot and autumn the hatchlings and quite activity. Although yes, its risky to make comparations because many factores must affect the populations

Winter 1986/87 I´ve been in Ouarza from Christmas until Holy Kings. Only some Ptyodactylus, a very few Acanthos and Agama. Only one Psammophis and 1 maura by flipping

Thanks, then I will never visit Ouarzazate in chrismas!

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Friends of mine, last year found a huge (160+ cm) Naja DOR on the road north of Tamri Bay, which is the northern most place, where they occur!

??? sure ?? of course you are sure about this information...

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Friends of mine, last year found a huge (160+ cm) Naja DOR on the road north of Tamri Bay, which is the northern most place, where they occur!

??? sure ?? of course you are sure about this information...

Not at all hinting this to be the case, but aren't there any cases of snakes being moved over the country and as a consequence found out of range? Or is this snake charming thing not that big (= no idea)?

[Gabriel Martínez]

Not at all hinting this to be the case, but aren't there any cases of snakes being moved over the country and as a consequence found out of range? Or is this snake charming thing not that big (= no idea)?

In the Morocco Atlas Book (Bons & Geniez 1996) there are old records of Naja in Tamri and more high (Essaouira). But anyway now its incredible to find a Naja north of Souss Massa. And 160cm!

About snake charmers, a friend saw a snake charmer in Tanger with a Malpolon monspessulanus saharatlanticus (typical in Souss Valley and southern coast) so probably people moves snakes to Jemal L Fna and other touristic places and change snakes with other local people. In a spanish nature photo web we saw a person that uploaded a photo of a Bitis arietans found some kilometers south of Marrakech . I think that it could be a snake that escaped from Marrakech ¿? Or maybe a new population north of the Atlas chain??? Really strange and difficult to research...

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

we must organize an expedition....

[Gabriel Martínez]

we must organize an expedition....

It would be fun to meet you there, and also Mario and other people of the forum. In south Morocco is not only cool Naja, Bitis and Daboia, even a strange Macroprotodon is very cool (at least by me and probably to Macroproton experts as Jeroen for example ). When we found this I just see the design and first second I didnt know what it was?? Its not a Lytorhynchus (like Mario, this was my first thought), when I saw the head I knew it was a Macroprotodon cucullatus "textillis" (Carranza et al 2004/ Macroprotodon cf. cucullatus?). This design is really different to all the Andalussian/north Moroccan/Israel Macroprotodon that Ive seen in my life. Strange but cute!

Macroprotodon cucullatus. Tantan. Gabri Mtnez.jpg (227.6 KiB) Viewed 6907 times

Even its very different to a close individual found in 2009 in Sidi Ifni (probably Macroprotodon brevis brevis)

Macroprotodon brevis. Sidi Ifni. Gabri Mtnez.jpg (232.52 KiB) Viewed 6894 times

But also different to a DOR individual found last year in june in Agdz (also M. cucullatus "textillis" based in Carranza et al 2004 map???) Sorry for upload a DOR animal to sensible people, its just to show the characteristics of the snake (although usually is the most common way to find snakes in Morocco )

Macroprotodon cucullatus. Agdz. Gabri Mtnez.jpg (173.71 KiB) Viewed 6896 times

Cheers

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

ok lets go to plan april 2013 ! Jeroen, Mario, others ?