Victor Valley College Tropical Research Initiative
Herpetofauna of Timor-Leste
Phase IV

Tilomar Forest Reserve, Covalima District

Accompanied by Casimiro Mendes from Timor-Leste's National Parks Department, we set out for the Tilomar Forest Reserve, which borders West Timor (Indonesia). The reserve is a large protected area that includes re-established sandalwood plantations. Leaving Suai to the west we came upon two road-killed Macklot's water pythons (Liasis mackloti). Whereas one looked like a genuine road-kill, the other was headless and was likely killed around a local house and thrown onto the road.

The sign for the Tilomar Forest Reserve
A stand of re-established sandalwood trees, the timber that originally brought the Portuguese and Dutch to Timor	Tilomar Forest Reserve habitat

Map of Tilomar Forest Reserve Click to enlarge

A road-killed Macklot's water python Liasis mackloti	but this headless specimen was killed elsewhere and thrown onto the road

We drove the winding road from sea level to almost 1,000 m, a journey of 39 km, searching for reptiles enroute.

Timor monitor lizard Varanus timoriensis	Laca with the monitor lizard, Benny, David & Paul in background

Searching under rocks in the forest, as we had done in the forests near Same, was fairly unproductive as every rock appeared to be home to a colony of aggressive ants. Instead, we started looking upwards.

Laca spotted a Timor monitor (Varanus timoriensis) a short distance off the ground on a roadside tree, but by the time everyone had bailed out of the vehicles it had climbed to a fork well above our heads.

There it stayed to watch, and Laca was able to climb up in pursuit. The monitor jumped, straight into the waiting throng of herpers below.

Every herp expedition should have a Laca!

Timor monitor lizard Varanus timoriensis
Click to enlarge images

This Timor monitor differed from all the other specimens we had seen. It was somewhat larger in size and lacked the rosette-patterning common to specimens we had captured in the past.

On the same tree, we also saw two Flat-tailed geckos (Hemidactylus platyurus) and while up above, Laca managed to dislodge them to fall to the people below.

Flat-tailed gecko Hemidactylus platyurus

The river separates Timor-Leste from Indonesian West Timor. Our vehicles are on the road to the left of the border. Click on the image to enlarge

Timor flying lizard Draco timoriensis male

On trees further on we captured a brown-phase Emerald tree skink and two females and a male Timor flying lizards.

At almost 1000 m we stopped to photograph the panorama across the border into Indonesian West Timor and then began the journey back down, stopping to search roadside rock piles for altitudinal Night skinks (Eremiascincus sp.) but finding only ants, large scolopendrid centipedes and the buthid Bark scorpions (Lychas mucronatus) we had painfully encountered in the past.

Our luck changed when Scott found a blindsnake which we originally thought was the parthenogenetic introduced Brahminy blindsnake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) but its scale count and wavy longitudinal stripes suggest otherwise. It bears a resemblance to the Striped blindsnake (R. lineatus) of the Greater Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Java and Borneo).

We also found a Striped treefrog (Polypedates cf. leucomystax) and an Orb-weaving spider (Argiope sp.).

Bark scorpion Lychas mucronatus	Orb-weaving spider Argiope sp.
Striped treefrog Polypedates cf. leucomystax
Striped blindsnake Ramphotyphlops cf. lineatus
Another sad road-killed Macklot's water python Liasis mackloti

Wave as you pass me by!