Herpetological trip to Oman: 4. to 17. Februar 2009 |
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trip report by Thomas Bader, Gerald Ochsenhofer and Christoph Riegler |
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Day 8 (11-Feb-2009): The Jebel Shams Highland 
On the next day we decided to visit the second highland plateau – the more western road to the top of the Jebel Akhdar with more than 3000 m of elevation. On the road we stopped for a quick look and met a German guy on the way with his bike, hiking through the country. He was tenting in the field and crossed the Emirates and Oman. He was also on the way to the Jebel Shams with his luggage – what torture! Just before the pass road starts, we took some pictures of the very impressive old city of Ghul, lying in the middle of a rocky slope just like the nest of an eagle. The green valley underneath the village seems to be very fertile because of its intensive cultivation. The older parts of the village are only ruins now, but the structure of the village is still recognizable.
Road to the Jebel Shams Highland
Higher up in the mountains we again searched for a rare snake, which is assumed to live only in this higher area – Pseudocerastes persicus persicus. Only few individuals have been found yet and unfortunately we also couldn’t find this impressive snake, although we searched quite intensively. Instead we just found some goats, some of them were climbing up trees, and in terms of herping only Pristurus rupestris was present. Instead we enjoyed the impressive views and we bought some products of the native craftsmanship like sheep made covers or other decoration made out of sheep wool. The access to the highest peak was not reachable by car, because of a military area. So we drove back down the valley where we were invited by some farmers to inspect their gardens and their underground cave falaj system. The cave system was really narrow and we didn’t manage to enter deep into the cave but still the complete dark parts of the cave which we entered were inhabited by some fish. Out in the gardens we found Arabic toads and in spite of the information of the farmers to have lots of snakes in their gardens, we couldn’t find a single reptile there – maybe it was not a good time of day in the afternoon.
At Werner’s urging after all these inefficient experiences in the gravelly and rocky areas and mountains we went back the more sandy areas near Manah and we found some A. opheodurus and B. tuberculatus. And here we managed to see our first huge Acanthodactylus boskianus – unfortunately we only managed to shoot a very bad photo, because of the immense speed of this lizard, which escaped somewhere in a bush. We decided to go for dinner and afterwards to come back to this promising place.
No sooner said than done – with our GPS we managed to find the place, which seems to be easy during the day, but which is actually quite difficult in the desert at night! Equipped with our torches we searched especially near bushes and tracks. We found a single Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes and one Bunopus spatalurus. Suddenly Christoph announced the record of a snake though the walkie-talkie. We ran together and identified the snake to be a juvenile Spalerosophis diadema cliffordi – the diadem snake. This snake is very rare in Oman and has not been found very often, maybe also because of its secret life style. This beautiful snake was for sure a highlight! Only some minutes later Gerald broadcasted the record of a saw-scaled viper – the sandy areas are occupied by Echis carinatus sochureki – the snake was about 35 cm long and not aggressive. It was found under a stone, which we also turned during our daily search!
After these amazing records we drove to the old centre of Manah and walked through the old city, where we saw some Ptyodactylus hasselquisti – a very quick nocturnal gecko, which we couldn’t catch – instead we caught a sleeping Pristurus gallagheri. Because it was already very late and we had to manage a long trip on the next day we decided to go to bed. We all were really happy and satisfied after this amazing night search.
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 Day 9 (12-Feb-2009): From Nizwa to the Wahiba Sands
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