"Crocodile Canyon"

Ayoûn El Atroûs, Mauritania

Location of Ayoûn El Atroûs in relation to the Tagant.

We never visited Ayoûn El Atroûs, another recently reported crocodile to the southeast of the Tagent Plateau in Hodh El Gharbi Province, but Hemmo Nickel was returning from there when he joined us.

Hemmo had two White-bellied carpet viper (Echis leucogaster) with him, a dangerously venomous species which I could use to demonstrate how desert snakes warn away potential predators, without the moisture-costly method used by many other snakes - hissing. Carpet vipers, or saw-scale vipers as they are known in Asia, have several series' of serrated-keeled scales on their flanks and when they adopt their concentric writhing defensive display this makes a sawing sound and acts as a deterrant to intruders.

White-bellied carpet viper, Echis leucogaster

We also filmed an African spur-thighed tortoise (Geochelone sulcata) from the same area.

African spur-thighed tortoise, Geochelone sulcata