British Columbia Herping

[joeysgreen]

I took a recent trip to Vancouver on the West coast of Canada last weekend and got to herp enroute. The weather was mostly cloudy and rainy which wasn't great for finding snakes and lizards, but it was fantastic for finding salamanders, a group of animals I'm sorely lacking in experience with.
This first find was a lifer for me, and under the first flipped log!
Western Red-backed Salamander Plethodon vehiculum

I found three in all.

It was well after dark. This photo is "as flipped" with nothing but my headlamp lighting the salamander.

Also on this trip were Northwestern Salamanders, Ambystoma gracile. The adults are near impossible to find, but the larvae are nearly always present in this pond. Absolutely fascinating things to find, but hard to photograph through the water.

A very common west coast millipede.

Flipping things in the rainforest was incredible. I found three species of millipedes, whole colonies of many different isopods, beetles, slugs, spiders, and of course ants and termites. I don't have any pic's of them, but some of the slugs were 4-5 inches long!

[joeysgreen]

We then went to a bog that was known for thick gartersnake density. Unfortunately they were all hiding with the sun in retreat. We did find three species though, all introduced animals, but still cool to find.
Green Frog Lithobates clamitans

See the bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus on the other side of the bog in the middle of the photo.

And red eared sliders Trachemys scripta, a real neat animal to find as I've had them as pets for many years.


Moving East past the Okanagan Valley we passed this salt water pond. Likely tiger salamander habitat, but it's sacred indian grounds so we were unable to get any closer. We did indeed find tiger larvae in another pond though.

Large gilled salamanders were present, and neoteny is a possibility.They proved to difficult to net, so this water shot is all I have to share.

[joeysgreen]

Continuing on East the sun began shining off and on. This Columbia Spotted Frog Rana luteiventris greated us at a nature preserve. Another lifer~!


One of the main ways to differentiate these guys from wood frogs is the red on their legs.


The robust Western Terrestrial Gartersnake Thamnophis elegans

And the most beautifull Canadian sirtalis IMO, the Valley Garter snake T.sirtalis fitchi

[joeysgreen]

Guess what Colin found?

Just the smallest western painted turtle I've ever seen! Chrysemys picta belli


The sun brought out some adults and youngsters, who basked on the lillypads.


And last but not least, this is not an endangered snail.

But this is.

A hot spring near Banff, Alberta has many introduced exotic animals and plants that do well. The water, even after it had made it's way to the base of the mountain, feels like a warm tropical aquarium. Up at the base of the spring, these endemic snails exist nowhere else.
I hope you enjoyed this thread
Ian

[zohariels]

Wow, fantastic pictures and info to go with them, sounds like a fantastic trip! That red backed salamander is awesome, I've never seen them before. Gotta love the baby turtles belly shot, I would love to get that for a wall pic(or a screensaver!) Thanks so much for sharing those!

[joeysgreen]

Thanks, I truely believe that our westerns are the prettiest of the painted turtles. Feel free to steal the pic for your own personal use if you'd like

[duh duh duh]

well done. thanks for posting them

[ti-pite]

thanks ian for sharing these pix and experiences.

pierre

[Aysha]

Aww there isn't much cuter than a baby turtle

[Siren]

This makes me wish that people I have been staying with in Vancouver for the last week and a half liked herps ... as it stands, I did not get any time to go herping even though I know I was in prime territory for it much of the time. *sigh* ... Glad to see you had a successful excursion. I will just have to live vicariously through your photos lol