Recent trips near Taipei

[numpty]

A quick update on the last postings. I went out again a couple of nights ago. Raining cats and dogs, it was! I mean, I like the rain ... it brings out the frogs ... but this was ridiculous. I think I caught on CNN yesterday that at some point three months worth of rain had fallen in Taiwan in just a few hours. And it lasted more than just a few hours ...

Anyway, enough griping. Before my camera shorted out in the rain, I managed a few watery shots.

I don't often focus on the snakes, but I enjoy seeing them. This one is Boiga kraepelini, the square-headed cat snake ("cat" because of the eyes). Rear fanged and only very mildly venomous, but quite aggressive, apparently.



This was a first for me. Hoplobatrachus rugulosus, the Chinese edible frog, or if you prefer, the East Asian bullfrog. I often hear this one calling from marshes and ponds, but hadn't until this point been able to see one. Maybe the rain was so hard that it thought it was actually safe in the middle of a lake when I approached it. Anyway, as the name suggests, this species often ends up on the dinner table in East and Southeast Asia, and for that reason has been introduced to a few countries outside its natural range, such as the Philippines. It will readily eat other frogs.


Not sure about this one. It might be either a colourful specimen of Fejervarya limnocharis, or else a juvenile Hoplobatrachus. Anyone have any ideas?


Another Rhacophorus prasinatus. Or maybe the same one, but somewhere else.


Buergeria japonica, the Japanese Buerger's frog. A small fellow with a striking trill of a call. In Taiwan this one sometimes lives around hot springs, which allows them to breed year round. Not quite as famous as those monkeys in the Japanese hot springs though ...


Okay, thanks for looking!