Fuerteventura

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Hi there.
Today I arrived at this island, I'm in Corralejo. Today I have seen many G. atlantica on dunes, but there was a problem with sharpness in photohraphs taken from distance, thus only several pics are in relatively good quality. How do You cope with it and with strong sunlight? Is it good idea to make a shadow over the lizard and use flashlight? It has been raining today so I hope to find some Hyla meridionalis soon. I have also a question if it is true that local skinks are now hibernating?
Greetings and Thanks
Michał

[Michal Szkudlarek]

And how to distinguish sexes in G. atlantica?

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Tarentola angustimentalis ticked as well. Does any noninvasive way to define its sex exist?

[Mario Schweiger]

Hi,

in Gallotia atlantica sexing is easy: If striped it should be a female. Males are only striped up to subadults.
Also the tail base should give you a good look to the sex (without catching, just looking from aside or above).
In Tarentola its much more hard. I think you have to catch the lizard and look to the tail base from below. There you should see the hemipenes sacks, if its a male.

Mario

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

I have also a question if it is true that local skinks are now hibernating?

I'd imagine that you should still be able to find them, although it might take turning over a couple of million stones

[Michal Szkudlarek]

You mean that they are not hibernating while being very rare or that they are hibernating? When I was in the begining of Ferbuary on Gran Canaria, skinks were rather common.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

You mean that they are not hibernating while being very rare or that they are hibernating? When I was in the begining of Ferbuary on Gran Canaria, skinks were rather common.

You've answered your own question.

[Peter Oefinger]

They are hibernating. I think you can't find them now.

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Thanks for replies. I have recently found out that on Fuerteventura G. galloti is to find! http://www.herpetologica.org/BAHE/BAHE21_[150]_28_Cons04.pdf But I have a problem with GPS coordinates, google maps does not find anything at "568516E / 3105655N"! Help needed!

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

They are hibernating. I think you can't find them now.

I don't see why it would be possible to find Chalcides ocellatus on Karpathos in December under superficial cover and not any skink on the Canaries in January...

Google Maps does not help, because your coordinates are UTM, dear sir...
Conversion to WGS84 lat lon (http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorc/toolbox ... eoutm.html)
=> N 28.074532610994954 W 14.302679781522432
It's all indicated in Fig. 1 anyway, so you don't really need them, I think.