Most of my posts as of late have been focused on butterflies, but in my defense they are the animal that is out the most/the ones we see the most at the moment. This doesn’t mean that we’re not on the look out for other animals and we’ve been lucky these past couple of weekends to have seen some really cool reptiles out and about. So here’s a post with lots of cool reptiles and…..not a single butterfly!

Leaf Turtle  (Cyclemys sp.)

Carly spotted this amazing turtle earlier in the month whilst driving down a small road to the beach. I have to say it was a great spot on a road that was littered with hundreds of old coconuts and other turtle shaped debris.

Red Necked Keelback (Rhabdophis subminiatus)

I stumbled across this snake; literally; I almost stepped on it. It only had a small segment of its body exposed in the leaf litter, but luckily the bright yellow markings on this segment were what gave it away and saved me from a taking my next step. I slowly began to move the leaf litter with a stick to see the rest of the snake. As soon as I moved the first leaf  the distinctive green head and unmissable red neck of a Red-necked Keelback popped out from its hiding place and began to watch me intently  .

It had obviously fed recently and its lower body was swollen with a meal which had spread its scales to reveal the bright yellow colouration between them.

Another cool thing was that when it felt threatened it flattened its neck revealing the bright red between the scales of its neck which transformed it from orange into a vibrant bright red warning signal.

Asian Vine Snake (Ahaetulla prasina)

I spotted this guy draped over a small bush on the side of the path near a waterfall that Carly and I were exploring.

I scooped it up onto a branch so we could get a closer look and take some snaps; and what a beautiful poser it turned out to be.

Smooth Backed Gliding Gecko (Ptychozoon lionotum)

This was another amazing spot by Carly. We were out exploring a waterfall near our house at night when Carly spotted it on a tree. It was very well camouflaged and at first it just looked like a normal gecko. Then on closer inspection I could see it had a flattened tail, webbed feet and excess skin on its neck and sides.

Parachute geckos can jump out of trees and use their webbed, feet and skin flaps on their necks, sides and tail to glide as far as 60m. You can really see its flattened tail and webbed feet in the next picture.

Emma Gray’s Forest Lizard (Calotes Emma)

I never get bored of seeing a familiar faces  when we’re out and about exploring and forest lizards are quite abundant in our area.

I’m looking forward spotting some more new reptiles soon.