Salamanders (and toads) in Taiwan and Scotland

[numpty]

Howdy all.

It was a busy summer with work and stuff, so a relatively quiet one for field herping, but I did manage a couple of trips, one while back visiting Scotland and one up to the Central Mountains here in Taiwan. I'm all about salamanders at the moment, but of course I don't turn my nose up at frogs or toads either!

Anyway, here's a mixture of photos from a not-very-active summer.

First up, the trip up to AliShan and YuShan in central Taiwan. My goal was to try to find an AliShan salamander - Hynobious arisanensis.

AliShan is a hugely popular spot where local, and recently Chinese, tourists swarm to see the sun rise over the cloud-filled valleys. One of the highlights of the trip used to be riding the narrow-gauge railway to the main tourist hub (a mish-mash of hotels around a big car park, located at 2,200 m altitude), but that was put out of commision a few years ago after a huge typhoon. Another storm had knocked the road out for a couple of days before my arrival, but luckily I got through. I walked the pine forests for a while, but managed only a single toad - either a juvenile spectacled toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) or central Formosan toad (Bufo bankorensis).



Then onto YuShan National Park, th country's largest, which contains large areas of upland forest and alpine grassland, as well as Northeast Asia's highest peak, the 3,952m Jade Mountain.

And I got lucky ... Hynobius arisanensis. This is the most common of Taiwan's five species (though still "vulnerable" according to the IUCN Red List), inhabiting damp forests from around 2,000m altitude up to about 3,500m.





And to finish off a few shots from a quick trip to Scotland. Not a country overly endowed with amphibians or reptiles, especially as far north as I was, but I was still hoping for a chance of some newts. I went to a spot that I used to visit as a boy, where newts were all around, but it was much tougher this time ... after a few hours I'd only managed a single smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris.




And a rather dark common European toad, Bufo bufo.



And to finish off, a couple of other toad shots from here and there.




Thanks for looking!

[Mentat]

Thanks for sharing pics and story with us ! Love the little toad in the first photo!

[Heatheranne]

Great photos!

I'm glad you found the salamander you were looking for. It always amazes me how different species look from region to region.

[UncleChester]

I like the contrast between the fat, robust toads and the slender salamanders. And the distance traveled to get some of these shots.