dissabte, 11 de maig del 2013

New pond

I haven't written in this blog for some time because I  don't  want it to be repetitive. But some things have happened.  At the end of last summer I bought a new female in poor condition: it was emaciated and stretched its neck to breathe opening the mouth. It had spent months in a basin in a shop. Maybe because of the few spots or because it already looked ill, nobody bought it. And the rest is easy to guess.
It needed forced feeding by esophagic probe, antibiotics and deparasitation and it finally  cured. When it started eating alone again, it was amazing: earthworms, snails and slugs, insects... all went inside.

It only has a tiny spot in each shield. This sober dress is also interesting. And to compensate for the little spots in the carapace, it has two big orange-red marks in the head.


Female with tiny spots

Female's plastron, very dark



I would have put it with the other Clemmys but a friend generously has borrowed me his unpaired male. And if the female looks sober, the male looks festive. In this case it is captive bred.


 


The head and extremities are also very spotted





The typical dark face of males


 I don't want to risk to break the harmony adding another male to the other couple of Clemmys , so, I have put the new couple in a pond in another place.
 


Recently made pond, with the water still murky




I still have to put an aerator and some fish to control mosquitoes

Both are young. The female measures  9,4 cm , the male  8,7. The male has mated with the female more than once. Although I think the female has a size to lay eggs, I don't think it does. I think it needs a summer feeding properly and some adaptation to the pond. If they ever breed, it will be curious to see what is obtained from this cross.

Regarding the other Clemmys, they do what is expected in this season. They mate, they feed and they sunbathe all day. This year and for the first time since I have them, I have witnessed the male trying to mate with the female "in land".


Yesterday I palpated the female and it wasn't carrying eggs yet.
 

This year there are more wall lizards than ever. The combination of sun, water and herbaceous vegetation with many small invertebrates that there is in the pond enclosure provides them most they need. It only lacks, and I am thinking of putting it, a pile of rocks piled against the more sun exposed wall of the house.  In the area where I live there are three other wall lizard species but this is the one that lives in more humanized areas. Watching them is very relaxing for me. They twist their head to assess whether you are a threat but if you move slowly they let you approach to a very close distance.
I have seen them catch caterpillars and other invertebrates, lick the water of the pond, sunbathe and explore the environment  with a combination of small sprints, stops and head movements so characteristic of these lizards.
 

When they hide, if you don't move they come out again , even if you are near them

 I have seen some of them tailess, as this male



These lizards come off the tail with extreme ease.  When they lose it, it makes strong contortions, it looks like it is alive. This distracts  the predator while the lizard escapes. Whenever I see a tailless wall lizard, I think the trick has worked. The tail regenerates..
 
Some males have an orange coloration of the underside of the body, and some blue scales on the sides. However, it is not seen like that by the other lizards. In a conference by the Societat Catalana d'Herpetologia, one speaker made a talk about the color perception of these lizards, which like birds and chelonians, see the ultraviolet light. They just don't see things like we do.
 




And this female looks like it is carrying eggs. Although when they sunbathe they flatten their bodies, this looked the same when it moved around. Hopefully one promise of tiny wall lizards for the month of August.