ANDALUSIA

In April 2008 I joined the Austrian herpetological field team from www.herpetofauna.at for a 10 day trip across Andalusia in southern Spain to find several endemic amphibians and reptiles as well as a number of other species. Our 11 man strong team resulted in finding almost all of the species present in southern Spain thanks to all of our dedicated enthusiasm. Our first base was Arcos de la Frontera in western Andalusia from which we explored the Sierra Morena and los Alcornocales as well as coastal areas close to Huelva, Cadiz and Doñana National Park.

Table 1: Number of specimens of reptiles and amphibians found in Andalusia, 9th-18th April

Latin name	Common name	Specimens
Salamandra salamandra	Fire salamander	1 DOR + larva
Pleurodeles walti	Sharp- ribbed newt	3
Triturus boscai	Bosca’s newt	common
Triturus pygmaeus	Southern marbled newt	2
Discoglossus galganoi	Iberian painted frog	10+
Pelobates cultripes	Western spadefoot toad	1 DOR
Pelodytes ibericus	Iberian parsley frog	20+
Bufo bufo	Common toad	3
Bufo calamita	Natterjack toad	5
Hyla meridionalis	Mediterranean tree frog	common
Pelophylax perezi	Iberian water frog	Very common
Mauremys leprosa	Spanish terrapin	10
Blanus cinereus	Iberian worm lizard	30+
Chameleo chameleon	Mediterranean chameleon	8
Chalcides bedriagai	Bedriaga’s skink	few
Chalcides striatus	Western three-toad skink	15+
Hemidactylus turcicus	Turkish gecko	few
Tarentola mauritanica	Moorish gecko	common
Acanthodactylus erythurus	Spiny-footed lizard	few
Timon lepidus	Ocellated lizard	10
Podarcis hispanicus	Spanish wall lizard	few
Podarcis vaucheri	Vaucher’s wall lizard	few
Psammodromus algirus	Large psammodromus	common
Hemorrhois hippocrepis	Horseshoe whip snake	4
Rhinechis scalaris	Ladder snake	1 DOR 1 live
Malpolon monpessulanus	Montpellier snake	11
Macroprotodon brevis	False smooth snake	8
Natrix maura	Viperine snake	30+
Vipera latastei	Lataste’s viper	1

Granada- Loja- Salobreña

For the second part of our trip we stayed in the province of Granada and in general were able to find more reptiles in this area, whereas we found the areas of western Andalusia better for amphibians.