Mexico Field Shots

[Triprion]

Greetings all! I am new to the forum, but I figured a good way to introduce myself would be to post a few photographs from recent summer trips south of the border.
I spend a couple months a year traveling through Mexico photographing wildlife and conducting declining amphibian surveys in the mountains of the eastern and southern regions of the country. I have a website (www.mexico-herps.com) that I am working on, thus most of my photos are of the reptile and amphibian variety. I do have a keen interest in inverts, and photograph the exceptional ones whenever they pop-up.
At any rate, here are a couple of the more "interesting" species I have found and photographed in recent years. The first is well-known to all, but a real thrill to see in the wild after having captive specimens during my youth. The impressive Brachypelma smithi:

This massive female had a scenic view of the Tropical Deciduous Forest from her burrow at the base of a large limestone rock. Beneath the adjacent small (fist-sized) rocks I found 1/2" B. smithi spiderlings. She was extremely aggressive and flicked her abdominal hairs with vigor when I finally managed to extricate her from her hole (a large beetle hit my flashlight, and she pounced on it, leaving the burrow mouth). Here's a mediocre habitat shot of her home, the foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero:

Next on the docket, what I believe to be Aphonopelma crinitum (I am probably wrong though, so please feel free to correct me!!) This large female was found on a boulder-strewn hillside covered with dense Tropical Deciduous Forest in the low hills of Colima. Several B. smithi were also found on this same hill that night. Does anyone know the full distribution of this species?

Here is a habitat shot of typical seasonally dry TDF of the Pacific Coast of Mexico. This particular shot was taken in Oaxaca, but it looks very similar to where the last species was found in Colima:

I hope you enjoyed this post! If anyone has requests for habitat shots from a certain region of Mexico, just ask and I will try to post some. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer with the ID's,
Tim

 

[syndicate]

wow very nice!!!thank your for sharing.its quite rare to see habitat shots like these

 

[syndicate]

im wondering if that second species pictured is actually Brachypelma albiceps?(formerly B.ruhnaui)

 

[David_F]

Great post and welcome to the board! Thank you for the pics. Love the shot of the B. smithi and it's habitat. Nice to see that they don't just come in the desert variety.

Do you happen to have any pics from the Yucatan? B. vagans or B. epicureanum (or any other spiders that happen to live in that region)?

 

[GoTerps]

Hi Tim,

Great shots! Thanks for sharing and welcome to AB!

Oh, I responded to your latest email, give me a call anytime.

Eric

 

[arrowhd]

Thank you for posting these habitat shots Tim. It is very cool to see photos of these animals in the wild. We are always talking about B. smithi being from dry habitats. Looks like they may not ALL be from dryer areas. Looking forward to seeing more of your photos! Do you have any of the actual burrow entrance?

 

[Oasis Inverts]

Thank you for sharing those pictures with us....That's great to see tarantulas in there natural environment..

Welcome to Arachnoboards.

 

[Rich65]

Welcome to the boards, thanks for sharing the pictures.
Would love to see some of your reptile and amphibian photos as well.

 

[josh_r]

wow! it is beautiful down there! in a couple year i want to try to make a trip down to veracruz and oaxaca to photograph the wildlife. i am particularly interested in the amphibian life down there. how are the pseudoeurycea populations doing?? i would love to see S.b. sierraoccidentalis, maxima, gigantea, and a few others. bollitoglossa would be a great find as well. especially lincolni, franklini, and mexicana! there are a few other bollitoglossa i wasa floored by, but i cannot remember what they are called. there are so many other fascinating genus of sals down there! i an fascinated that many of them are bromeliad dwellers as well. im going to check out your website

 

[Triprion]

Thank you all for your responses! In answer to a few different questions/comments:
Brachypelma albiceps was mentioned as a possible ID to the Colima tarantula: this is the second time that has been suggested and I agree it does look like that species. When I first found it I thought it was a Brachy, but I knew very little of Mexico's arachnid distributions and wondered if Brachypelma occured in sympatry and that it could be an Aphonopelma. I think your guess is correct.
As far as Yucatan photos - I knew someone would ask for photos from the ONE region of Mexico I have never visited! I have never been east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but I did find B. vagans (or a closely related T) several times in the state of Veracruz. Here is a banana plantation where I found many vagans in 2005 and 2006:

And the rainforest of the Tuxtlas Region of Veracruz where I found a T related to vagans, but substantially different:

Josh: as for herping is Veracruz, it's by far the hardest state to herp with the expectation that you will find numbers. It's a lot of work for little return, especially for montane amphibians. If you stick to the lowlands you will have frogs and toads up the wazzoo, but once you hit any elevation the hillsides are largely coffee and banana plantations. We still found amphibs in those habitats, but very few. I know some very small regions where amphibs still abound, but they took a lot of luck to discover. Here's a Bolitoglossa platydactyla to keep you motivated to hit Veracruz. This species is still common there:

And a Bolitoglossa "occidentalis" from the Tuxtlas:

Last but not least, Pseudoeurycea bellii bellii from the Cordillera Volcanica:

Enjoy!

 

[Justyn]

So have you had any issues with the friendliness of Mexico? I've been to several countries but for some reason Mexico has always scared me a bit. Doesn't help that I know very litte Spanish. Being just south of the border it would be great to go for a week or so.

 

[Triprion]

I have only felt threatened down there a couple times. The general rule is if you are respectful and don't do anything stupid or illegal you will be OK. I actually feel safer most places in Mexico than I do in a lot of areas here in the states. Research the areas you plan to visit thoroughly, as many excellent herping spots are also drug traffic routes or growing sites, and these may be extremely dangerous. If you want specific info, just ask and I'll try to help you out.

 

[Tranch]

Thanks for sharing!

Hi Triprion,
Love the pics.
Where in Texas are you headed?

 

[josh_r]

hey triptrion, i am going to have to contact you for planning on my trip. it will be in about a year or so. i would have to go down there and be in the wrong place at the wrong time or get skunked! i have also heard from many people that once you get past the border towns, the mexican locals are the nicest people. i have also heard others say they feel safer down in mexico than in many parts of the US. i will PM you triptrion

-josh

 

[PETERPARKERFROMCOLOGNE]

Greetings all! I am new to the forum, but I figured a good way to introduce myself would be to post a few photographs from recent summer trips south of the border.
I spend a couple months a year traveling through Mexico photographing wildlife and conducting declining amphibian surveys in the mountains of the eastern and southern regions of the country. I have a website (www.mexico-herps.com) that I am working on, thus most of my photos are of the reptile and amphibian variety. I do have a keen interest in inverts, and photograph the exceptional ones whenever they pop-up.
At any rate, here are a couple of the more "interesting" species I have found and photographed in recent years. The first is well-known to all, but a real thrill to see in the wild after having captive specimens during my youth. The impressive Brachypelma smithi:

This massive female had a scenic view of the Tropical Deciduous Forest from her burrow at the base of a large limestone rock. Beneath the adjacent small (fist-sized) rocks I found 1/2" B. smithi spiderlings. She was extremely aggressive and flicked her abdominal hairs with vigor when I finally managed to extricate her from her hole (a large beetle hit my flashlight, and she pounced on it, leaving the burrow mouth). Here's a mediocre habitat shot of her home, the foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero:

Next on the docket, what I believe to be Aphonopelma crinitum (I am probably wrong though, so please feel free to correct me!!) This large female was found on a boulder-strewn hillside covered with dense Tropical Deciduous Forest in the low hills of Colima. Several B. smithi were also found on this same hill that night. Does anyone know the full distribution of this species?

Here is a habitat shot of typical seasonally dry TDF of the Pacific Coast of Mexico. This particular shot was taken in Oaxaca, but it looks very similar to where the last species was found in Colima:

I hope you enjoyed this post! If anyone has requests for habitat shots from a certain region of Mexico, just ask and I will try to post some. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer with the ID's,
Tim

Hey Tim,

For some reason the Images in your posts are not shown, on non of my devices. Could you upload them again if they are offline, or send me the Smithi pick to my email address: contact.schumacher@googlemail.com - I would be very thankful as I would design my terrarium accordingly!