In November 2006, I traveled to three
islands in the Seychelles (see
www.seychelles.com for a map) in search of endemic geckos with
my postdoctoral advisor Dr. Aaron M. Bauer. Most of our time
was spent on Silhouette Island shown to the left, which is the least
developed of the larger granitic islands.
Here is a view of the jungle as seen from
the back of our guest house. If you look carefully in the
upper left corner, you can see a fruit bat cruising over the canopy.
These bats were numerous and ubiquitous, giving the place a surreal,
prehistoric ambience.
Lamprophis geometricus
Ptychadena
mascareniensis
We were lucky enough to find almost every species
of gecko, as well as many of the other endemic amphibians and
reptiles. Although I managed to photograph the very rare gecko
Urocotyledon inexpectata, we're reserving the photos for
publication. Below are some of the interesting finds:
Ailuronyx tachyscopaeus
Sooglossus gardineri
Lycognathophis
seychellensis
Calumna tigris
Pamelaescincus gardineri
Geckos in
the genus Ailuronyx
(pictured above) have the ability to wiggle out of their skin when
molested by a predator such as a snake, bird, or in this case, a
herpetologist.
The tiny
frog (11 mm) pictured to the left is in the Family Sooglossidae,
which is restricted to the Seychelles Islands. Close
affinities of this group to frogs in Africa, Madagascar, and India
confirm that the Seychelles are a small piece of Gondwanaland's
evolutionary and geological history.
