12 Mar, 2008

Our crew observes a keelback snake on the hunt, tadpoles that swim upside down and a wagtail amongst other species around clear forest pools in Kaeng Krachan National Park.

Yesterday afternoon we came across some fish and tadpoles, some of them huge, swimming in clear forest pools in Kaeng Krachan National Park, in southern Thailand, where we are filming at the moment.

We saw two large kinds of tadpoles while filming yesterday. One kind, uniform black in colour, belonged to the Malayan giant frog (Limnonectes blythii). The adult frogs of this species can reach lengths of 26cm (10in) and although we never saw one, we heard them jumping through the foliage beside the water on several occasions.

We also spotted two snakes yesterday – a red-necked keelback (Rhabdophis subminiatus) and a chequered keelback or Asiatic water snake (Xenochrophis piscator). Both species are voracious consumers of frogs, so it was no surprise to find them around the water.

This morning we returned to the same pools.

Our first visitor was a young triangle keelback (Xenochrophis trianguligera), probably on the hunt for baby frogs.

This individual was only about 30cm (12in) long – adults can be over 1m (3ft) and eat birds and mice as well as frogs.

Keelbacks have excellent eyesight and react fast when they see a frog moving. They usually hunt by poking around under leaves and fallen branches, hoping to flush out a frog and then chase it down.

A male grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) came down to the pool in search of insects. The black bib reveals he is a male. One can only wonder at the purpose of that unmistakable bobbing gait of the wagtails.

All through the morning, the various species of tadpole were feeding in their own way. We saw one type of large tadpole that was able to swim upside down, allowing them to skim the water surface for some kind of food invisible to our eyes.

We started to explore the vegetation close to the pools and came across the strangest spider I have ever seen.

How can we possibly explain such outrageous appendages? We know that nature is never profligate so there must be a reason for this bizarre body form, but what that may be I have no idea. While we were watching the spider, a number of wasps stole in and helped themselves to small insects stuck in the web.

At one point a beautiful butterfly crawled into the web, sending the spider scurrying to a nearby branch.

Happily, after a short struggle, the butterfly broke free and the spider resumed its vigil.

– by Darryl Sweetland, Earth-Touch crew © Earth-Touch

Comments

Please log in or join to post a comment.