Herpetological trip to Oman: 4. to 17. Februar 2009 |
 |
trip report by Thomas Bader, Gerald Ochsenhofer and Christoph Riegler |
|
Day 7 (10-Feb-2009): The Sayq Plateau 
Nizwa was the starting point to our trip to the Sayq plateau in the eastern Jebel Akhdar Mountains. We started early in the morning and passed Birkat al Mawz, where the police is controlling all passports and cars, although the road is quite new and in a good condition. Only 4WD cars are allowed to pass and we were asked to use only the first gear. This was a very unusual usage in this country, where hardly any controls or rules for driving are instructed – probably the way to control inexperienced tourist drivers on this quite steep slope.
Pristurus rupestris
First we drove to the village of Menakhar, a village where walnut trees and grape-vine grows. The people in such little mountain villages are not used to tourism and therefore tourists are asked to dress and behave cautiously. In Qatana, the main village of the Saiq plateau, the old and the new part of the city with newly built houses, schools and office buildings can easily be distinguished. Not far away from this city we visited a wonderful viewpoint, which is called Diana’s point, because Lady Diana visited this place shortly before she died. It is a lookout to the opposite side of the valley to a small village with huge terraces, where agriculture is practiced – it is really worth visiting!
Of course we also searched for reptiles in the mountains, but we weren’t really successful. The most common reptile was again P. rupestris, which inhabits all type of rocky terrain and often showed its tail waving up and down. P. rupestris inhabits mostly the lower parts of rocks and boulders, while Pristurus celerrimus was climbing on top of such boulders. This species is also waving its tail, but more horizontally. In one wadi we first saw a juvenile Oman lizard Omanosaura jayakari, which we surprisingly missed in the northern Wadis of the Hajar Mountains, but unfortunately we couldn’t catch or photograph this lizard. On the way back to the car Hannes found a huge stick insect, well camouflaged in a bush. The higher elevations of the Hajar Mountains are known for the occurrence of Pseudocerastes persicus, but we couldn’t find any snake in the mountains. Also the gecko genus Asaccus is well known for the Jebel Akhdar region. Three out of four species are known to occur in this area, but we didn’t make a night excursion in the mountains or wadis, so we missed this genus completely.
After we had some more spectacular views, we drove back down and visited a wadi on the road from Muscat to Nizwa near the eastern end of the Western Hajar Mountains. Wadi Qurai is one of three wadis entering the Western Hajar from this road. It is only possible to drive to the mouth of the gorge then we had to balance on the falaj-bridge to cross the wadi entrance. A young native boy with a gun escorted us and he told us to sometimes shoot wild tahrs, which we never even saw. He also claimed to protect his goats and sheep with his gun from the rare leopards. Our escort boy also showed us ruined houses, the origins of the falaj system and other hardly recognizable cultural relicts of the past. It was not the only time, when we saw shepherds going around with rifles – maybe poaching is the reason for the rareness of big mammals?!
In any case, this wadi was a highlight, because Gerald found one of the rare small Oman lizards – Omanosaura cyanura – a very shy and nervous lizard. We observed it for a while and could hardly shoot a picture, because it was always on the run. Its behavior reminds one of European rock lizards with its small snouts, searching in little gaps and cracks of rocks. While waiting for the lizard to come out of a gap, we found a Mabuya tessellata nearby and Gerald took the first picture of a big Oman lizard – Omanosaura jayakari. On the way out of the wadi we saw a big and a small wadi racer Platyceps rhodorachis. Of course P. rupestris was also omnipresent. For sure this valley was one of the highlights during our journey!
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
 Day 8 (11-Feb-2009): The Jebel Shams Highland
this page has been viewed 1319 times since 12. Dec. 2009
|
