Trinidad’s Aripo Savanna complex of tropical grasslands, palm islands, marsh forest and moriche palms with numerous slow moving streams, ponds, and puddles. On June 18-19 the Herp Group from the Trinidad and Tobago field Naturalists Club surveyed the herpetofauna. The weather cooperated to a degree with occasional showers and thunderstorms and blistering heat, which creates a very nice sauna-like effect. The TTFNC-HC will summarize the results elsewhere, but here are a few of the highlights.
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Rare creatures are sometimes sited on the savanna. Here is Graham White looking for them while well camoflaged. |
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| Aripo Savnna 1. The largest remaining remanant of the savanna. |
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| Stevland Charles and Edmund Charles inspect Marsh Forest Vegetation |
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| A Marsh Forest Pond |
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| An Aripo Savanna Sundew. |
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| Leptodactylus fuscus, the most commonly seen and heard amphibian on the Savanna, |
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The Scorpion Mud Turtle, Kinosternon scorpioides, a savanna and marsh
forest inhabitat. |
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The Trinidad Wood Turtle, or Galup, Rhinoclemmys punctularia, another Marsh
Forest - Savanna chelonian.
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Predator & prey. The Horse Whip Snake, Oxybelis aeneus and its prey, the Streaked Lizard, Gonatodes vittatus. |
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| A male Hypsiboans punctata (Hylidae) that was calling from this leaf. |
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The poorly known microhylid frog, Elachistocleis surinamensis is quite common in the Marsh Forest and at the forest edge. |
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| One of the day groups, with Mike Rutherford examining a turtle (middle). |
Labels: chelonians, lizards, marsupial frogs, savanna, Trinidad
