Cosmo Magazine contacted me last week to tell me that I am going to be on their iPhone App which is releasing soon. They are going to release new pictures that weren't in the magazine. I appreciate everyone's support.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
It's called a Skink
This past week I went on a “walk-about”, a 5 day trek through the eucalypt savannah of central Queensland. My trip began at Undara Volcanic National Park where I encountered literally hundreds of Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Agile Wallabies, a Burton’s Legless Lizard (my first pygopod), and above all else a gorgeous Western Brown Snake characterized by a jet black head, tan ground color, and orange dorsal blotches. I then journeyed west to Georgetown, a small enclave full of several species of cockatoos and parrots. From there we journeyed south to Forsayth coming across two species of whipsnakes and a gorgeous Blue-tongue Skink. This brings me to my story…
Driving along a dirt track just outside of Forsayth I saw something in the road and jammed on the brakes. I hopped out and saw a beautiful Blue-tongue Skink! I raced over to where it laid basking in the road and it took off underneath the vehicle. I quickly ran around the other side but saw nothing. I peered underneath the truck…nothing. Then, to my astonishment, I saw movement inside the rim of the rear left tire! The large skink (18 inches in total length) had managed to squirm its way inside the rim and showed no sign of leaving its makeshift refuge. Parked squarely in the middle of the road I feared the approach of a road train, a semi towing 3-plus trailers with a length of over 150 feet. Yet I was unable to move the vehicle with the skink in the rim and dove underneath to attempt to remove the lizard. Twenty minutes of work under the vehicle and I finally managed to pry the Blue-tongue free. Lizard in right hand, shifting with my left (Aussie vehicles have the steering wheel on the right side), I was able to move the vehicle off the road and safely analyze my capture. It was a beautiful skink, brightly barred and possessing that colorful lingual appendage that gives it its namesake. My most targeted member of the Scincidae family is now crossed off my list.
The rest of the trip was successful, seeing several monitors, a freshwater crocodile, a tree kangaroo, and a dingo. Unfortunately I had to leave the beautiful western landscape and head back to Cairns to return the vehicle (and to school), yet I departed with a sense of satisfaction. Roughing it in the remote dry country of Australia for a week was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Updated Modeling Portfolio
Everyone has been asking so I have updated my modeling portfolio on facebook. The shots are by Josh Camero Photography and styled by Alan Rust with On Display Men. It was a cold day in Dallas when we shot but everything went very well. Let me know what you think!
Friday, March 11, 2011
My Largest Python ever!
It’s twilight, just following a thunder shower, as I walk from the Centre to the car park. We’re on our way to the Barron River to survey Bufo marinus populations along a re-vegetation site and I decided to take a short-cut through a field (an old mango orchard) up to the van. It’s nearly impossible to see in the 4 foot high grass, yet I manage to detect movement only a few inches in front of my foot…Australian Scrub Python! The largest Australian serpent, the species I had been after since day one, is now at my feet. This is quite a large specimen and I knew immediately the male was over ten feet in length, by far the largest snake I have ever seen in the wild. I bent down to grab the snake which took off towards the forest edge. Wrapping both hands firmly around the serpent, I dragged him out of the bush into a more open area.
He’s bigger than I originally thought! Andy and I carefully wind the tape measure down his spine (as he decided to wrap his body around my left thigh) and came to a total length of 12’1”. WOW. Finally the king of the Wet Tropics. This large snake is actually the dominant terrestrial predator in northeastern Queensland, preying on marsupials as large as wallabies. Arboreal by day, the snakes bask amongst canopy epiphytes and descend to the forest floor at night to hunt. This large male was most likely interested in Red-legged Pademelons, which are very common on site (especially in more open areas). I photographed the enormous serpent and released him, watching this 12 foot monster disappear into the Australian rainforest. Maybe I’ll meet his big brother tomorrow…
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Black Snake Success
Well it poured all morning, AGAIN. I feel that simply describing this time of year as the wet season is a severe understatement. The skies cleared a little near dark and I took a respite from my academic obligations, grabbed my headlamp, and headed up to the greenhouse (where I had previously seen the python and several Eastern Small-eyed Snakes) for a quick search. The large male Small-eyed was again atop his perch on the mulch pile, yet the greenhouse did not produce a serpent this time. I wandered over to a rarely used shed, a “microhabitat” frequently utilized by many different snakes and lizards. Adjoining the shed was an enormous piece of tin, nearly 15 feet in length. Now while tin is usually a herper’s gold mine, I typically have done nearly all of my flipping during the day. Yet I couldn’t just pass it by. I flipped the tin and chaos ensued. A sizable snake with a very dark dorsum went shooting out into a tangle of tall weeds in front of me. Judging by its size and coloration it has to be either a Slaty-grey Snake (a harmless colubrid) or a Red-bellied Black Snake (a venomous elapid). I did not get a good look at the snake’s head and subsequently had no way of knowing. I sprinted into the mess of weeds both without a stick or tongs (I was studying and went for a quick walk, really not expecting to see anything hot). No movement. I can’t believe I missed my chance at my first Red-bellied Black, a rainforest elapid I’d been after for nearly a month. Frustrated, but not quite ready to admit defeat, I began kicking around in the grass. There’s a black body! I look anxiously for the head. Oh boy, it’s a Red-bellied Black alright. I reach for his tail and grab the 3+ ft snake which has now become so embedded and wrapped around the tangle of weeds that it’s impossible to separate the snake from the grass. I grab the nearest implement, a broken broom handle leaning against the shed, to aid me in my capture. Tail in left hand, broken broom handle in right, I go to work. Ten minutes later he’s finally free (and now able to freely strike at me, which he did repeatedly). Feeling both relieved and delighted, I pinned the elapid and grasped him firmly behind the head. This is when I realized that I do not have a sack. The one time I’m unprepared. With no other choice, I hiked back to my cabin with specimen in hand, sacked the serpent, grabbed my camera (along with my stick) and set out to take photos. Quite the capture with many unusual speed bumps, but a success nonetheless. I returned to the Centre to study, upon which I stumbled across another Eastern Small-eyed Snake curled up around a chair. A good ending to a great night.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Amazing Outback Experience
Today I got to experience the Outback, or dry country as the Aussies call it. We took a trip to Chillagoe, a small mining town west of the Great Dividing Range. Once a thriving community of 10,000 people, the area now only encompasses 200 individuals with the closing of the smelter in 1943. Yet the environment of the area is pristine and much different than the rainforest I’ve been living in, and I was anxious to see a different part of the country. The area is characterized by eucalypt savannah woodland, very comparable to the long-leaf pine savannah that occurs in the southeastern United States. Jagged limestone outcrops emerge through the woodlands, representative of the coral reef that existed in the ancient Hodgkinson Basin millions of years ago. Agile wallabies dotted the area at near plague levels, hopping around both the woodlands and our campsite. I was also lucky enough to see a dingo along the way, a healthy, rustic brown individual jogging alongside the dirt track. With nightfall came an unbelievable “skyline” of Orion’s Belt, the famous Southern Cross, and hundreds of other southern hemisphere stars that I have literally never seen before. Laying in the dark in an open field staring at the night sky is truly a humbling experience, and most definitely a sight I could become accustomed to.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Beach picture
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Monday, March 7, 2011
Beach Time for Work & Play
Today I visited Mission Beach, the coastal community where Cyclone Yasi (read the earlier post about this) made landfall. On the drive in, the devastation became evident in the rainforest as entire canopies were stripped of foliage and branches. The SFS student body and I traveled south to this area to aid in a community clean-up, and I personally worked at a tree nursery sponsored by a conservation group. After finishing with the massive debris pile deposited by the storm surge (nearly 40 yards from the high tide line), I was able to take my first walk along the Pacific Ocean. What a beautiful sight. Directly off the coast sit small, mountainous islands that dot the horizon. I unfortunately was not able to swim due to the fact its Box Jellyfish season (“stingers” as the Aussies call them) and this region was not netted off. I wanted to swim despite the stingers but the staff would not allow that (which I grudgingly admit is understandable). So instead I went for a walk along the shoreline and discovered lots of coral, undoubtedly deposited on the beach from Yasi’s storm surge, including an enormous block weighing at least ten pounds. Too bad I couldn’t take that home as a souvenir. Torrential downpours cut my Pacific walk short, and we packed up and headed back to the Centre. The destruction evident at Mission Beach puts the power of tropical storms into perspective, and I hope that the rest of my stay Down Under is cyclone-free.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Aussie Monitor Adventure
Today we had a guest lecture from one of the authors of the MBHNAP, a community-driven initiative designed to protect the habitat and values of the greater Mission Beach area (habitat critical to the conservation of the endangered Southern Cassowary). At the conclusion of the lecture, a classmate approached me and told me how he watched a large male Lace Monitor calmly walk past the classroom window and head north into the forest. I immediately bolted for the door and found the lizard 25 yards from the classroom nearly 20 feet up a eucalypt. I couldn’t believe it. I saw this individual for 3 days nearly two weeks ago, as he sat nearly 40 feet up a tree unmoving for 72 hours seemingly taunting me. I was unfortunately off-site when the varanid descended from his perch and subsequently missed my chance at a capture. Yet here he was again, definitely the same lizard in a significantly lower perch on a much more accessible tree. I scampered up a few branches and the monitor noticed my presence and greeted me with hissing and tail whipping. Yet what concerned me was his constant movement out towards the end of the branch, an area which definitely would not support my 200 pound frame. I realized that I simply would not be able to climb out and grab him as I planned and knocking him out of the tree would only allow me to watch him sprint into the denser rainforest as I remained on the branch. I quietly climbed down, cut a sapling, and herded the monitor towards the edge of the branch. I saw my chance and jumped, grabbing the 10 foot high foliage along the terminal branch and all hell broke loose. The lizard hit the ground running and took off back towards the trunk of the tree. I had worked for over a half hour getting him out, I definitely was not going through that process again. I hurdled over a pile of brush, crashed through a small sapling, and managed to grab the monitor just as he began making his way up the tree. Success! What a magnificent reptile, by far the largest lizard I have ever had the pleasure of capturing (and possibly the largest I might ever catch, unless I manage to get a perentie or a Komodo Dragon). This monitor was characterized by a saurian head, razor sharp nails, a 4 and a half foot frame, and a pungent odor that I can only liken to an un-cleaned iguana terrarium. I took some photos, examined the brilliant specimen, and filmed the release. The monitor chose not to take back towards the tree but rather dashed back into the rainforest. Later on in the evening, I caught a large Eastern Small-eyed Snake and another Carpet Python (only slightly smaller than the last specimen). I retired to my cabin exhausted and drifted off to sleep with ideas of the prehistoric Aussie monitor that reached nearly 18 feet running through my head, attempting to devise ways I would go about capturing this reptile…
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