Some time ago, I was recovering from a serious operation (don’t be sad, I’m like Wolverine, indestructible) I was a bit “morphine-ed” up and under the strict instruction from the Surgeon to have a period of complete rest and recuperation. As any field herper knows, this is doctor jargon for “ go off into the desert and herp your guts out son.”
Wishing to aid my recovery, my good friend Jurgen invited me to accompany him on a trip to find as many venomous species as possible in the herping Mecca (pun intended) that is Israel. Israel is an amazing country. Forgetting the political and religious shenanigans and the fact that Israel is smaller than most backyards in the U.S., the scenery, habitat and shear number of herp species makes it one of the best herping destinations in the Middle East in my honest opinion.
So despite protests from my loved ones, after a last decent cup of tea, I left home at 3:30 to drive to the airport. A pleasant-ish flight later and I was in Tel Aviv. After almost three weeks of constant rain, the sunshine that greeted me was most welcoming. I finally cleared customs as a single male traveler, with a bag of snake hooks, camera equipment, and no idea where I was staying; let’s just say security at Tel Aviv airport is “robust”. After only a brief period of waterboarding I headed outside to meet Jurgen.
Jurgen is a most excellent field herper from Bavaria. Widely experienced in herping in both the US and Europe, he has an absolute passion for vipers, rivaling my own. He also takes grumpy and sarcastic to Olympic levels. Outside the terminal, Jurgen was smoking, his natural state since he basically runs on nicotine, caffeine, and swearing. After the perfunctory greetings and islander insults, we collected the hire car and headed to our destination in northern Israel. For those of you that have not had the joy of driving with Jurgen just think of Grand Theft Auto, he drives a car like he stole it.
As we neared our base for the next three days, an area with both steppe like and Mediterranean habitat, we encountered our first D.O.R. snake, a stunning Malpolon (Montpellier Snake). A very different looking individual to the other Malpolon I have encountered elsewhere in Europe, very reddish in colour. We arrived at our base and relaxed. Jurgen smoked as I moaned about the lack of tea for five minutes . Soon we hit the minor roads to look for herps and meet up with Israel’s top boys, Guy and Aviad. It was just getting dark and temps were good, so we were hopeful of an eventful night.
We met Guy and his charming wife Leum. Both Guy and Aviad have charming partners, that herp with them and don’t seem to mind their obsessive interest in such things. I am also lucky enough to have a fiancée that manages to remain incredibly enthusiastic as she wanders about in the field, flipping rocks looking for snakes while remaining beautiful and immaculate. I look like a homeless person within a few minutes of leaving the car. A supportive partner cannot be underestimated, it’s like winning the lottery.
Guy had kindly brought us a welcoming gift in the form of a sub-adult Daboia. He had removed the huge viper from someones’ house earlier. Flowers or chocolate are the norm, but Jurgen and myself could not have been happier. We started scanning the roads for herps as the golden hours of 20:00 to 21:30 were upon us. It wasn’t long before Guy spotted a second Daboia. Jurgen was so excited he nearly stopped smoking. Nearly.
Then Guy spotted a Mole Viper, Atractaspis engaddensis, one of our top ticks for the trip list. A stunning snake, with a very curious stike/bite action, this snake has a very small gape, so they strike with sideways, not vertical fangs, in a bizarre side to side motion.
As we were laying around taking excited pics of the mole viper, in my peripheral vision I could see cute little mice running around the desert floor, sometimes they would run over my leg, between shots I stopped to closely examine the mouse on my leg only to realize, with utter horror, the cute little mice were actually Solifuges or camel spiders as they are commonly known.These primitive tarantulas are pretty much all teeth and legs!
I like to think of myself as a gnarly dude with a long time in law enforcement and I’d like to say I calmly brushed the camel spider off and went back to taking award winning pictures but no. I jumped up shedding clothing like a stripper on meth and screaming like a drag queen that just had her best heels stolen. After my heart rate came down to double figures we continued herping, finding some cool species such as the Long-Nosed Worm Snake Myriopholis macrorhyncha.
Sadly, we later found a dying Daboia which I had to dispatch. Unfortunately, D.O.R.’s were all too common. To cheer us up Guy found a fabulous little Telescopus nigrocephalus, the Black-Headed Cat Snake. Aviad finally joined us and, in typical Israeli style, also brought us a snake in the form of a Black-Headed Ground Snake, Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus.
We herped into the night and after thanking our guides, Jurgen and I headed back to our base, grey foxes and Jackals were seen on the ride back, along with many other small mammals. As we approached our accommodation, the last herp of the night presented itself on a roadside outcrop. A stunning Ptyodactylus guttatus, the Sinai Fan-Fingered Gecko, that was out hunting. We sat, Jurgen smoking, me moaning more about not having a cup of tea for 19+ hours and listened to Jackals howling in the distance, before finally turning in for a few hours sleep.
Up after a pants sleep, we then headed further North, for my biggest objective of the trip, the Lebanon Viper, Montivipera bournmuelleri. En route, we stopped at a roadside ditch that actually had water in it! The ditch was like a tadpole soup complete with some Levant Water Frogs, Pelophylax bedriagae. Who were taking full advantage of the conditions.
One disgusted Jurgen, scoffing at my joy of also finding dragonflies, stomped off to smoke and curse Islanders but found a number of juvenile Natrix tessellata, or Dice Snakes, while doing so. We carried on, our objective however was in an area of military occupation which meant our target habitat was not accessible. Unfortunate and disappointing but at least the vipers have the best protection of any herp in the area.
We searched for suitable habitat outside the military zone and found Lacerta media israelica, Ptyodactylus puiseuxi, Phoeniocolacerta laevis, Ophisops elegans, Erienis levantinus, Erienis rothi , Trachylephis vittata, and Laudakia stellio. As well as many arachnids and insects, including the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen, that was the size of a mouse. Even Jurgen paused momentarily to catch a glimpse of that warlock.
Back on the road to HQ, Jurgen was waxing on about how Daboia are the sexiest snake in the world while smoking and I sat wondering if Jurgen is a robot, as he doesn’t seem to sleep, eat, drink or poo. A true nicotine based life form. We stopped at a man-made irrigation lake. While stopped, Jurgen spotted some tree frogs and to his immense joy, a Testudo. Jurgen rarely shows emotion but I swear I saw the traces of a smile between Marlboros.
We finally made it back to base to eat and refuel but we were itching to get back on the road for more road cruising. We waited for the golden hour and with no hesitations began our search. We found a very fast Daboia and a not so fast Javelin Sand Boa, Eryx jaculus. It was such a joy to see sand boas in their natural habitat, as I have kept many at home.
We stopped at about 23:30 hours and decided to have an early night. Jackals and other mammals were seen on our return to base. The next day we were out early at one of the few wetland areas in Israel, home of the Painted frog. This species was once thought to have gone extinct but, fortunately, was rediscovered at this site and thriving.
Few herps were to be found at the Painted Frog site but large mammals and fish were in abundance. We did see the usual frog, green toad and terrapin as well as more stunning dragonflies. Stopping off on the way back we found Typhlops ermicularis, another variety of worm snake and Hemidactylus turcicus, the ever present Turkish gecko. Soon we were into our last night of Northern Israeli road cruising. Jurgen was double smoking as it was his last chance at finding more Daboia. We stumbled upon more D.O.R. snakes and were very lucky to find an adult Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus and another Eryx jaculus.
After a few hours of searching, we called it and headed back to HQ only to find the entrance blocked by a mighty beast in the form of Bedriages Frog. Jurgen was clearly too afraid to leave the car, so I took it upon myself to move the living road block. After the amphibious ordeal, a quick pot of noodles and bed was on the agenda. We were travelling South in the morning onto new habitat and new herps.
To Be Continued in Part Two!
