Summer Survey of Reptiles & Amphibians
By Parker Gibbons
At the end of June and into July, the first herp bioblitz done on the BFREE property took place. I had the privilege to coordinate this trip and brought along 8 people with the sole purpose of finding, photographing, and documenting as many reptile and amphibian species as possible. Over the course of 6 days, we managed to find an incredible diversity of herps, around 40 species total. Our main focus for the trip were snakes, and we ended up finding over 50 of them. As soon as we arrived at BFREE and started to get settled into the rooms luck was already on our side. I went to put my bags on the bed in the cabin and when I turned around, there was a tropical rat snake (Pseudoelaphe flavirufa) on the floor. It didn't take long to get the ball rolling to make this a successful Belizean expedition. Especially since soon after we found a boa constrictor and a coral snake on the first night.
Most of the group agrees the best find of the trip came from an incredible hike where we walked down to a beautiful access of the Bladen river and as a few of us were swimming, a large tapir swam across the river. At one point it fully submerged and then popped up closer to the bank. After that incredible sighting we hiked up a ridge where one of our guides, Canti, stopped to show us a midden of Mayan pottery shards. When we arrived at the top of the ridge a group of us were resting on some rocks when Zeke Churchin spotted a snake shoot back into a big pile of rocks. He described it as a large black snake, but he only saw the tail. When I heard that, my excitement intensified and I knew we had to figure out what it was. I peeled back a bit of moss on the backside of the rock that revealed a tunnel it was coiled into. We managed to get it out and everyone was immensely excited to find a large and beautiful black tailed cribo, also known as the central american indigo snake (Drymarchon melanurus), a top target for most of the group encountered in an incredibly dreamy setting.
Baird's Tapir Photo by Justin Oguni
We found 15 venomous snakes, 5 fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), and 10 coral snakes (Micrurus sp.). Most of the corals were found at night crossing trails, although one was spotted climbing up a fallen give and take palm tree and another was flipped under a log. Two people on the trip, Devin Welch and Gabe Shuler, got to watch a fer-de-lance unsuccessfully pursue a Yucatán banded gecko (Coleonyx elegans). We also found two boa constrictors, the first of which was hanging around the kitchen and it made several appearances throughout the trip, including once crawling through the garden. The other boa was spotted along a fallen ceiba tree by Chris McCarty while hiking at night. Both snakes were around 4-5ft long.
There were several non-reptile finds that made the trip exciting - especially mammals. In addition to the one swimming, about half of the group got to see two other tapirs. Including one that walked right past Nick Harris and Ben Morrison. We had many cool monkey observations. Maddie Prickett brought a trail camera on the trip to see what was moving around the trails at night. She captured a beautiful ocelot, a tapir, and a red brocket deer. On night hikes we spotted several kinkajou crawling in the trees, and several people were lucky enough to watch a small arboreal porcupine run through the trees.
Mayan pottery shards the group discovered on their hike.
The diversity of interests that our group covered really made this a phenomenal expedition. We had people with backgrounds in plants, fish, birds, insects, and of course herps. Our one obligatory birder, Justin Oguni, spotted lots of incredible birds with the help of our guide Mario. Some bird highlights were mot-mots, a king vulture and even the first stygian owl spotted on the BFREE property.
Spending a week in the Belizean jungle getting exposed to the amazing biodiversity of the Mayan Mountains is an incredible experience. Much of our group had never been to Central America before, so it was great to see everyone enjoy and explore a brand new environment. You never know what is going to be around the next bend at BFREE and we were excited to reveal the incredible hidden biodiversity Belize has to offer.
