Herping Trip!!

I went on a herping hike tonight with our herpetology club. About 30 people went and we took taxis up to Grand Etang, one of the national forests in Grenada. The drive is about 45 minutes from campus along the winding, narrow, and steep roads that are characteristic of Grenada.

When we arrived about 6pm, the sun was already mostly set. We got a few good sunset pictures (our elevation is about 1900 ft at that spot).

 We went down two different trails and saw a whole bunch of different critters! Frogs, anoles, a tree boa, a moth, and a mouse opossum! We had an amazing time! Another thing you can see really well out in the mountains are the stars. The sky is so beautiful here and it just gets better when we're out away from light. I've never seen anything like it before!

 

The tree boa we found was about a foot and a half long high up in a tree. He was a reddish brown color and had some faint dark green bands and lots of black spots on his belly. They are an endangered species only found in Grenada, and one of the professors here is currently doing a research project on them with the help of several students and colleagues. They were very excited to find the snake and pulled it out of the tree (they have a nifty snake pole that helps them retrieve the snake). They took all sorts of measurements, swabs, blood, and many pictures of the snake for their project. It was fascinating to watch! I can't wait to read their published work some day!

 

The trails were pretty muddy and I came home covered in mud! My sneakers are absolutely filthy! I had mud all over the bottoms of my pants, my socks, my ankles, and my white shoes were brown. I washed them off and then stuck them in the washer for 2 rounds of soap and stain remover, but they look almost as bad as when they went in. Good thing they were already designated as being dirty hiking shoes!

 

I can't wait to go hiking again! I had so much fun and there were so many things to see! Too bad I have to study for midterms now haha.