Herpetological trip to southern Thailand
December 18th 2022 – January 8th 2023
Unless specified otherwise, pictures (c) Jeroen Speybroeck.
Make sure to also check out Matt's report for the first part of our trip.
How I longed to be back in the tropics! Friends Peter and Anniek asked me to join them to what has more or less become their second home country. They had teamed up with Matt, which we did again. His knowledge was pivotal to our success. Besides myself, Loïc and Nicky also joined, thus completing a crew of six. Matt left us about halfway into our trip, while Loïc, Nicky and me split up from Peter and Anniek during the last five days.
Dry season is not the best to find herpetofauna, but there is always plenty to see for those who keep on searching. I was particular hoping to see two Thai frog specialties I had not seen before (
Pelobatrachus nasutus and
Nyctixalus pictus). Despite the season, we ended up doing surprisingly well on the amphibian front (ending up with a total of 52 observed frog/toad species). Snake-wise this was the first trip which had me surpass the 40-species glass ceiling, as we ended up finding 44 live snake species (and even roughly ten species more if you add the success of Peter and Anniek prior to and after the overlapping part of our trip). Absolute highlights were the weird
Erpeton tentaculatum, my first ever kraits (
Bungarus spp.) (can you believe it…) and an array of stunning vipers, with
Daboia siamensis and the (within Thailand) seldom observed gorgeous beast
Trimeresurus sumatranus. The overall diversity was overwhelming, with a total of 144 herp species seen and (as such) far more than I had expected.

search sites and accommodation
December 19th : Phuket
An airport strike made me arrive two days later at Phuket airport, which had the advantage that the others were all set to show me a whole bunch of species. Matt has been living on Phuket for quite a while, which obviously helped us a great deal. We found 23 species in a single night – a great way to kick off the trip. Jetlag can and shall be ignored.
First, we explored a small mangrove trail, which was good for some nice habitat specialists.

Cerberus schneiderii

Cantoria violacea

Cantoria violacea - © Loïc van Doorn
On our way to more terrestrial habitats, a nice python of over 5 m. I regret not taking any half-decent pictures of the beast.

Malayopython reticulatus - © Anniek Aerden
The rest of the night was spent in forested environment, offering some amphibian specialties and two viper species.

Polypedates leucomystax

Polypedates leucomystax

Chalcorana eschatia

Megophrys parva

Leptobrachium smithi

Limnonectes macrognathus

Ichthyophis kohtaoensis

Trimeresurus phuketensis

Cnemaspis phuketensis - © Loïc van Doorn

Tropidolaemus wagleri

Tropidolaemus wagleri

Tropidolaemus wagleri
December 20th : Krabi
We divided our next night between a hill which is home to
Trimeresurus venustus and a nice mangrove. We lucked out on the former, but the latter made up for that, with six species of snakes, which included some fun cobra wrangling.

waterfront dinner

one of our playgrounds for the subsequent night

Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus

Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus - © Loïc van Doorn

Fordonia leucobalia - none as attractive as those I have seen in Australia

Naja kaouthia

Naja kaouthia - © Loïc van Doorn

Cyrtodactylus zebraicus without the trademark original zebra-tail

Gekko tokehos

Lycodon capucinus
December 21st : Trang
We were kicked out of the sites we wanted to search near Trang, so we did not get the anticipated
Calloselasma rhodostoma or the
Bungarus flaviceps we had hoped for. No worries, plenty more to come, and we still found a handful of frogs and lizards.
December 22nd-26th : Narathiwat
Our time in the extreme south can be considered as the main target area of the trip, providing us with numerous highlights. While five nights of searching did not even offer us a scale of
Trimeresurus wiroti, Peter struck gold with the major find during our last night in the area: a stunning adult female
Trimeresurus sumatranus.


Trimeresurus hageni

Trimeresurus hageni

Trimeresurus hageni

Trimeresurus hageni

Trimeresurus hageni

Rhabdophis flaviceps

Rhabdophis flaviceps

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Limnonectes deinodon

Fejervarya limnocharis

Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus





Theloderma licin

Theloderma licin

Gonocephalus liogaster

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Pelobatrachus nasutus

Draco melanopogon

Draco melanopogon

Xenochrophis trianguligerus

Hypsiscopus plumbea

Xenopeltis unicolor

Pareas margaritophorus - © Loïc van Doorn

Varanus salvator

Varanus salvator







Amolops larutensis

Cyrtodactylus consobrinus

Bungarus candidus

Leptobrachella sola

Calamaria pavimentata - © Loïc van Doorn

Calamaria lumbricoidea - © Loïc van Doorn

Christmas eve dinner in heaven






Draco formosus

Gekko kuhli

Leiolepis belliana

Sylvirana malayana

Kaloula pulchra (with leech)

Gonyosoma coeruleum

Gonyosoma coeruleum

Pulchrana sundabarat

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus

Leptophryne borbonica

Leptophryne borbonica

Draco maximus

Draco maximus

Calliophis bivirgatus

Calliophis bivirgatus

Calliophis bivirgatus - © Loïc van Doorn

Odorrana hosii - © Loïc van Doorn

Hylarana erythraea - © Loïc van Doorn

Phrynella pulchra

Lycodon subcinctus

Zhangixalus prominanus

Trimeresurus sumatranus as found

Trimeresurus sumatranus

Trimeresurus sumatranus

Trimeresurus sumatranus

Trimeresurus sumatranus

Trimeresurus sumatranus

Trimeresurus sumatranus

© Loïc van Doorn
December 27th : Phattalung
After five hardcore days in the south, we moved back north with satisfaction but some regret in our hearts. The outskirts of a big lake offered us a new highlight in the shape of one of the strangest snakes on the planet.

Erpeton tentaculatum - © Peter Engelen

Erpeton tentaculatum

Erpeton tentaculatum

Erpeton tentaculatum

Enhydris enhydris

Homalopsis mereljcoxi

Ichthyophis kohtaoensis

Ichthyophis kohtaoensis - © Loïc van Doorn

December 28th : Khanom
The day of our unsettled
Trimeresurus venustus business, exploring a wonderful karstic hill and finding the beautiful target species and some splendid others as well.

daytime mini-birding

aaaahhh… the food!

Kalophrynus interlineatus

Kalophrynus interlineatus

Glyphoglossus guttulatus

Oligodon taeniatus

Oligodon taeniatus - © Loïc van Doorn

Cylindrophis jodiae

Elaphe taeniura

Elaphe taeniura

Trimeresurus venustus

Trimeresurus venustus

Trimeresurus venustus

Trimeresurus venustus
December 29th : Phang-nga
We inserted an extra single night stop while moving up north, failing to find the local
Ansonia, but still adding some new frog friends and visiting a nice local park.


Alcalus tasanae

Sylvirana malayana

Phrynoidis asper

Phrynoidis asper


December 30th – January 1st : Khao Sok
The subsequent three nights were spend near Khao Sok NP. Bit crowded, but a nice place to be if you pick one of the accommodations on the outskirts of the village. Herpwise things were really getting tougher, with comparatively (very) low numbers of snakes being found, but we soldiered on and enjoyed. A supersweaty solo daytime hike will remain one of my fondest memories of the trip. Two days on the water were also a very agreeable way to spend the daytime.

a room with a view

front yard friend - Calotes versicolor

breeding pond of Rhacophorus nigropalmatus






Boiga melanota




Clinotarsus penelope

Microhyla berdmorei

one Odorrana hosii and two Chalcorana eschatia

Boiga melanota

Boiga melanota

Boiga melanota

Cyrtodactylus oldhami

Limnonectes blythii - the beast of the brooks

Rhabdophis nigrocinctus

Amolops panhai

Amolops panhai

Acanthosaura phuketensis

Acanthosaura phuketensis

Pareas carinatus

Pareas carinatus

Draco fimbriatus

Draco taeniopterus

Sphenomorphus maculatus

Gekko gecko

Gekko gecko

Siebenrockiella crassicollis


Ptyas carinata

Ptyas carinata

Ahaetulla prasina

Nyctixalus pictus - as found

Nyctixalus pictus

Nyctixalus pictus
January 2nd : Ranong
One mangrove night for a very special snake.

© Nicky De Wit

Bungarus fasciatus - as found

Bungarus fasciatus

Bungarus fasciatus

Bungarus fasciatus - © Loïc van Doorn

Gekko gecko
January 3rd : Sam Roy Yot
Mosquito Ville. No endemic pit viper for me (although Peter managed to find
Trimeresurus kuiburi the next night, dammit).

in-between refreshment

the food, the food, …

Cyrtodactylus samroiyot

Cyrtodactylus samroiyot

Cnemaspis lineogularis

Dendrelaphis sp.
January 4th : elephants & Hua Hin
After an elephant safari, Loïc, Nicky and I said goodbye to Peter and Anniek, and moved on to the wider surroundings of Hua Hin for one night.








Trimeresurus albolabris

Trimeresurus albolabris

Trimeresurus albolabris

Dendrelaphis pictus

Ahaetulla prasina

Microhyla mukhlesuri

Sylvirana nigrovittata

Polypedates megacephalus
January 5th : Sa Kaeo
Further up north and passing Bangkok, we entered an area with not so nice habitat but a very-high-on-our-wishlists viper species.

Microhyla pulchra

Dixonius siamensis

Daboia siamensis - as found


Daboia siamensis

Daboia siamensis

Daboia siamensis

© Loïc van Doorn
January 6-8th : Khao Yai
One last national park, one last pit viper and then it was back home.

Varanus salvator

Cyclemys oldhami

Sylvirana mortenseni

Trimeresurus vogeli

Trimeresurus vogeli

Trimeresurus vogeli

no real trip without some car trouble

Physignathus concinnus digging a nesting hole

Physignathus concinnus

Eutropis macularia

Gehyra fehlmanni - © Loïc van Doorn

Micryletta erythropoda

a final little jungle strawl

exit
Epilogue
It has been an amazing trip, with variable daily results and not as many snakes as we could have found, but nevertheless some remarkable finds and a couple of days with very high species number.

The species accumulation curve shows we were not reaching any plateau just yet, so we should have stayed a little longer.

Remarkable absentees include
Calloselasma rhodostoma and
Trimeresurus macrops. Dry conditions and (in the northern areas we visited) fairly low temperatures may have caused this. Diurnal, ubiquitous snake species like
Chrysopelea ornata and
Coelognathus radiatus were also not found alive. Finding only a single live species of
Boiga was also surprising. In contrast, with 52 species we did rather well in terms of frog finds. A return visit will be in order to have another shot at finding some of my main target species such as
Bungarus flaviceps,
Python bivitattus and (of course)
Ophiophagus hannah.

Species list