TIMOR-LESTE REPTILE & AMPHIBIAN SURVEY
A BALI RAINFOREST WALK

A driver and a guide from Bali Eco Cycling, a company that specializes in bike tours and nature-related trips on Bali, picked Hinrich and the German team up at 07:00. As with almost any sightseeing activity in Bali, let alone one that includes a tour in primary rainforest, the day begins with a long drive. From Kuta, the site in southern Bali where the hotel was located, they drove for about 2 h, mostly uphill, all the while swerving in and out to pass the many local motor scooters. They ascended the slopes of one of western Bali’s volcanoes, Gunung Pohen, and eventually reached the edge of the crater that allowed a very nice view of the crater lakes and the forest they were about to enter. They reached the Tamblingan Park at around 09:50, ready to do some herping!

Panoramic view of Danay Buyan (left) and Danau Tamblingan (right), twin crater lakes in northwestern Bali. The forest lies on the far side of the lake on the right.

The sign at the entrance to the Tamblingan Nature Recreation Park	The moss-covered trail

This is a high-altitude forest (elevation ca. 1300 m), and the persistence of high moisture levels became immediately apparent: there were mosses everywhere, growing along tree trunks and branches, as well as on the shorter vegetation. It made for a beautiful fairy-tail scene, or perhaps a Lord of the Rings scene, but we could not see any herps! As happened during Phase IX in the high forest on Oecusse district, here was a perfectly suitable habitat on a perfectly nice day, but nobody was home! After rolling many dozen logs and looking into countless crevices on trees and rocks, Mirco finally found us a skink that Sven captured in short order. The individual was a Temmink's forest skink (Tytthoscincus temminkii) a representative of a group of skinks originally described for a species assemblage in the Philippines, but distributed as far as Indonesia (e.g., Borneo, Java, Lesser Sundas).

Female Temmink's forest skink, Tytthoscincus temminckii	Sven in his element, playing with skinks

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