Hey There! Here is a post of mine from another forum.
I just recently got back from a 10 day trip to Costa Rica with fellow forum member Dr. Dark. Half of the time was spent in the north central portion of the country in Arenal, while the other half was spent in the northwest portion of the country near Liberia in Guanacaste. It was a fantastic trip to an amazing country I have long wanted to visit!
I would like to preface this by saying that I am by no means a photographer, amateur or otherwise! We saw a total of 57 live individuals from 22 different species during our roughly 9 days of herping. Plus a whole skew of DOR's that I didnt count. Hopefully, Dr. Dark has an account of the DOR's and some better pictures to add to this post
Hope you Enjoy!
Here is a view from the Lodge dining room of the Arenal volcano. There was about an hour time period that I was able to get this shot on the last day of our stay. The rest of the time the volcano was shrouded by the clouds that brought the torrential downpours we endured. Gorgeous view none the less!
And a little teaser of the snakes to come... this was our rooms patio on the second to last night in Arenal
But before the snakes, here are a couple shots of Costa Rica's most iconic frog. To the dismay of the 'phib guys I am sure, I actually stopped paying attention to all of the different frogs seen. It would be almost impossible to document all of them without eating up a ton of time that could be better used finding more snakes
This was the coolest in situ shot ever in my opinion..
.. this one wasn't bad either.
Now on to the snakes!
We found 11 total Bothriechis schlegelii affectionately known as the Eyelash Viper. As I am sure most of us know, these guys come in an astounding array of colors and patterns.
This first male we found was a gorgeous yellow and had a HUGE meal in him. I would venture to guess based on abundance of available prey that it was a frog of some sort.
Here is a younger male in a brilliant brick red..
or is it brown?
A female in the lovely yellow or "Oropel" phase
A nice garden phase male
Speaking of garden phase, a LARGE female and perhaps my favorite schleg of the trip
And another nice yellow male
Hopefully Dr. Dark will add some more shots of these awesome snakes!
We hiked up a big Pseustes poecilonotus, that promptly bit the hell out of me upon capture and subsequently Dr. Dark. Check out the blood on his pants! In this picture you can also catch a glimpse of Miguel, who is a good friend of Dr. Dark's and a Costa Rican native.
In broad daylight we cruised another beautiful one exhibiting a high amount of red..
who upon release found himself a couple of tasty treats
Speaking of snakes with red in them, we hiked up this cool little Urotheca guentheri
We Flipped and cruised three of these Ninia sebae.
A couple of nice looking Micrurus mosquitensis, this little guy was out on a side walk
And this one Dr. Dark flipped under a piece of AC at a trailhead
Apparently he remembered who found him.. and did not like posing much!
And a sweet look-alike we hiked up after seeing a few DOR's, Oxyrhopus petola
This one had less red than usual..
This young Atropoides mexicanus came from the same forest the big coral was found in
These guys are beyond timid
In that same forest we also hiked up a snake I was very much hoping to see, Bothrops asper.
A couple nights later we cruised an even bigger one
A very formidable beast, and one I have wanted since I was a young child!
Dr. Dark and Miguel taking some shots
And just to give you an idea of their crypsis
These Sibon nebulatus were relatively common, we found 4 live individuals. Super sweet snakes.
An even more exciting find from the same genus was two of these great looking Sibon longifrenis who have a dead ringer pattern for a certain color phase of B. schlegelii.
The first one was quite a feat of teamwork; Miguel spotted the snake about 15-20 feet up in a tree cruising between branches, I managed to get a hook on it with some effort which caused it to fall and Dr. Dark caught it mid air! All in the inky blackness of the rainforest at night.
We found 4 of these Imantodes cenchoa. Such a delicate looking snake, very cool indeed.
These Leptodeira septentrionalis are great snakes, and remind me a little bit of some Boiga. We found 3 of these guys.
We found one Boa constrictor in Arenal... he didn't like taking pictures...
and three during the next leg of our trip in Guanacaste, including this large adult..
and a couple of babies
Guanacaste was HOT and dry, but with about 1000% humidity. We prayed for rain to the great snake in the sky "Ophidius Maximus"
but despite the oppressive heat and lack of rain we still managed to do pretty darn good if I do say so myself!
On the drive over from Arenal we cruised this big adult Loxocemus bicolor
And a younger, smaller version a few nights later
We also scored this sweet Porthidium ophryomegas on that same drive
We hiked up a couple of neonates later on in the trip
We called it a night shortly after cruising this neo Crotalus simus
The next night we cruised this BEAST that was every bit of 5 foot. Super exciting find for both of us!
We scored some fossorial species that are often found in close proximity of each other
Enulius flavitorques
Leptotyphlops ater.. this guy was soooo tiny
We cruised what I would consider a ribbon snake with the nastiest disposition ever, Thamnophis proximus
And an awesome opistoglyph, Crisantophis nevermanni
We found 4 of these Leptodeira annulata, which look very similar to the septentrionalis but are more robust and terrestrial..
On the last night we rounded out the Sibon trifecta with this gorgeous Sibon anthracops
I was sad to leave, and wish I had just a couple more days to end up with 25 species
... but there is always next year!
Fri 27 Jun - 9:15
