Serpents & DragonsWhile we were at Laguna del Lagarto Lodge: Juan; Olman (who chauffeured us during the trip); and some of the Lodge staff; caught some snakes for us to photograph one morning.
This was extremely courageous (if not entirely wise!) on their parts because, although these were all baby snakes, and less than a half-meter long, they were no less venomous for being young.
Juan and the other guys set-up some moss-covered logs in the shady veranda of a pavilion which overlooks the river and the forest beyond and provided nice homogeneous backgrounds for the photographs. They used Herpetologists' steel-hooked sticks to keep the snakes under control (which was a good thing as most of us were using macro lenses and getting less than sensibly close to the snakes.)
The shade from the mid-day sun was nice for both us and the snakes and we used off-camera flash to accentuate the texture of their scales!
We had four different species of highly venomous Pit Vipers and a couple of very pretty and benign tree snakes.
The first photograph shows a very prettily coloured Eyelash Pit Viper
(Bothriechis schlegelii):
Extended scales above their eyes produce the "eye-lashes" for which they are named).
You can see the "Pits" on its snout: these act as infra-red and heat-sensors so that these snakes can sense the body-warmth of nearby prey even in complete darkness.
Bothriechis schlegelii exists in many different coloured variations (although they all share the same species name) and this golden-yellow version is sometimes called the Palm Pit Viper:
The sensory "Pit" is clearly shown on the snouts of these two.
Another species of Pit Viper:
Hog-nosed Pit Viper (Porthidium nasutum)While all of the previous species are seriously venomous (although victims do usually respond well to anti-venoms) this next one is deadly.
I talked to one man whose sister had been bitten by a "Fer-de-Lance" and, although she was able to get treatment quickly enough to survive, it was not without amputation of part of her leg.
The extremely venomous Fer-de-lance
(Bothrops asper) is also known locally as "Terciopelo".
I watched very carefully where I put my feet when walking in the forest searching for frogs at night.
These very pretty Parrot Snakes
(Leptophis ahaetulla) are non-venomous tree-dwelling snakes which prey on frogs, mice and nesting small birds:
The Blunt-headed Vine Snake
(Imantodes cenchoa) is another very pretty mildly-venomous arboreal snake which feed on frogs and small lizards. They are nocturnal and have thin bodies, large heads and huge eyes.
Another portrait of the venomous Yellow Pit Viper (shot from much too close!):
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DragonsThese astonishing Basilisk Lizards
(Basiliscus basiliscus) are popularly known as Jesus Christ Lizards because, in spite of their size, their enormous feet allow them to run on their hind-legs across the surface of water.
I didn't see one walk on water but found this one in the branches of a tree which was growing at the bottom of a steep cliff (on which I was standing) so that the Basilisk was pretty well at my eye-level but I still needed 700mm of lens to get these shots.
Notice his disproportionately large feet!
Long, slender Basilisks have these wonderful dorsal crests, a head-crest like a crown and an incredibly long tail..
This one was about a metre in length from head to tail and we found him in the Savegre River valley on the Pacific side of the country inland from Quepos.
