Herpetological trip to Oman: 4. to 17. Februar 2009 |
 |
trip report by Thomas Bader, Gerald Ochsenhofer and Christoph Riegler |
|
Day 2 (05-Feb-2009): The Hills behind Muscat 
Before we started, we lifted a wooden plate beside our parking space and a sand snake escaped quickly in the shrubs. The sand snake is the fastest snake of all in Oman. We could catch 5 out of 10 observed sand snakes.
The newly built Mosque between Seeb and Muscat is the only Mosque open to public (from Sunday till Thursday). We visited this spectacular building and were fascinated by its dimensions and grandiose architectural details. The gardens were blooming and green, Hindu rollers were flying around everywhere and not far away above the suburbs of Mutrah we saw some Egyptian vultures, the most common bird of prey in Oman. Although Muscat is the capital of Oman, it is only a very small village compared to the neighboring city of Mutrah and its suburbs. The whole area from the airport near Seeb till the Muscat is called the “Capital Area” and is densely populated. Where the mountains arise, the settlements end expeditiously. These hills and mountains behind Muscat belong to the Eastern Hajar Mountains.
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Our first stop was in a small Wadi with marginal vegetation and without any surface water. The temperature was mostly about 18 degrees in the morning and about 25 -27 degrees during the hottest parts of the day, which was really pleasant for searching. The hottest time of the day was the later morning, while during the afternoon a cooler wind developed. In this valley even the number of Pristurus rupestris was very low and we could hardly find any living animals, although the time of day was excellent for herping. Finally we found a couple of Sinai agamas – Pseudotrapelus sinaitus. When we found the male, it was a nice blue colour on the whole body. After disturbing the agama it quickly changed its colour and only some blue remained on its tails.
In the afternoon we visited a promising Wadi site further east with some ponds, which we followed until reaching the sandy beach, but again during the afternoon hours we didn’t find any reptiles, even though we searched quite intensively. So we drove back to the center of Muscat, which isn’t really worth visiting and afterwards we checked out the market (souque) of Mutrah before we tried our luck directly behind Muscat where a Wadi was obstructed by a huge concrete dam. In the pools above the dam in a narrow canyon we found lots of tadpoles and finally some adults of Bufo dhofarensis, the more uncommon of the two toad species in Oman. B. dhofarensis is a nocturnal species which inhabits quite dry areas. It differs from the Arabian toad by its big eardrum, which is moreover surrounded by a crest.
We had our dinner in a local restaurant which was operated by Indians or Pakistanis. Compared to the food in a hotel the prices are about a quarter in local food stores, but alcohol is restricted to the international hotels. After our good night beer we found some Hemidactylus flaviviridis on the walls of our hotel near lamps. Chris had already found the same species in the morning in the garden of the Mosque. Near the hotel we found another Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
 Day 3 (06-Feb-2009): The Hills behind Muscat
this page has been viewed 290 times since 12. Dec. 2009
|
