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

Mt Manucoco, Ataúro Island, Dili District

We had ventured up Mt. Manucoco in 2010, and walked back down a mountain track, a tough trek that took 11 hours and ended in the dark, but this time we had arranged for the truck to come back for us at 14:00.

With a local guide we made a long circuit around Macadade through densely-wooded creek and open rocky-grassland habitats until we reached a coconut plantation where we took a break and refuelled on coconut milk. During the trek we captured Common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus), Mutilated gecko (Gehyra mutilata) and Emerald tree skink (Lamprolepis cf. smaragdina), and missed a Eutropis-like skink which dived into a treehole. The Jets also elicited some interesting intelligence from our guide, there are reportedly no flying lizards (Draco sp.) on Ataúro Island. Had they been here they would have been a different species to the Timor flying lizard (D. timoriensis) of the main island and more closely related to flying lizards in the Inner Banda Arc. Despite this we have not given up hope of finding a second species on the island.

Climbing up from Macadade	A patch of forest in central Ataúro
Regenerated-tailed Common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus
Emerald tree skink Lamprolepis cf. smaragdina
Click on images to enlarge

Orb-weaving spider Nephila sp. (female)	Kyle conquers his arachnophobia

We arrived back at Macadade at 13:30 but by 14:30 the truck had not appeared. Knowing the walk back by road would take many hours, as the road looped far to the west and north of the island before descending to the eastern coast where Tua Ko'in was located, a journey of at least 16 km, we decided to start walking.

It was a hot trek but fortunately after an hour or so, and only around 3 km into the long walk, the truck arrived, and we all rode back down to Tua Ko'in, fully appreciating the distance as it took the truck a full hour from where it had picked us up.