Field notes, v1307
Page 261
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Greene, H. 1990 December 14 (continued) file Barry Hammell's dissertation. Took photos- must ask Blehe about eggs, because I doubt I'd have missed seeing them on earlier nights - suggesty they lasted only a short time. Checked the sways below big Dipturops - down a steep slope that reeks (in the mind!) of Bothrops asper ! There is what looks like a dense stand of Epithophyllum to the SE of the tree. Also checked out the waterfall and ford the trail and pool above the fall both obscured by large treefalls. At 2033h during a lull in rain I found a small adult (41mTL) Dwarfides incornatus ~ 2.6m aboveground in a 6 cm Ø sapling. The snake was descending a leaf twig to a horizontally covered in moss, w/ it's body arranged in several wide loops - reminded me that another (suppressive) advantage of body elongation is support on thin structures. By 2038h the snake had crawled slowly, tongue-flicking, ~20-25 cm so that it's head had almost reached the trunk. At 2057h I stood on an adjacent log to take closer photos, accidentally bumped the trunk, and the snake abruptly turned back up the limb, twig, and extended ~ 1/3 of its body straight up in space. Hung there a few seconds, then dropped down on the twig and froze. Scattered Hyla callig. At 2200h I returned to find the snake in the same place; on the opposite side of the sidewalk I saw a Hyla elachochra perched about on the leaf of a bromeliad ~1.5m above ground.