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United Arab Emirates - May, 2018

Don't know how, don't know why but this happened : we've been on a herping trip in the UAE. Surely, that was not the destination I've been thinking of when we made our wishes for 2018's trips.


Sunday, the 6th of May

After some pretty long hours travelling from Geneva to Dubaï (through Saudi Arabia (only as a connexion) and remember that because that will be an important information for later in the report) and some problems passing customs (mostly for Karim, I think it's because of his name and is arabian face), we're welcomed into the airport by some very big troubles renting a car. I rented one from France with my french card (in France, all cards are called "credit cards" but you have to know they mostly are debit cards) but they needed a real "credit card" for the deposit. It took a little bit of time but we finally ended up with the car and already where exhausted right before we started our trip. And did I mention the 45°c? Fortunately, we were expected by Frank, a french friend and a very good photograph, close to the Arabian Wildlife Center were we asked for some permission to visit the area (as almost every wild place in the UAE is closed by barriers) but it was not as easy as expected and we finally took the road to some shopping center (wateeeeeerrrr !!!) and to spend the night in the mountains !


The place we spent that first night is called Wadi Shawka. A very hot a rocky place where we hoped to find our first reptiles and amphibians. UAE only have 2 amphibian species, so we were pretty confident in our chances to find both during the trip.

We first visited some trees (yes there were a few) and found our first reptiles there, looking under some wood : Rock semaphore geckos (Pristurus rupestris).


Pristurus rupestris

When the sun went down, we started to find some life as there were some geckos close to our car. Three species within a few minutes : Gallagher's leaf-toed gecko (Asaccus gallagheri) with their white or yellow tail, Hasselquist’s fan-footed gecko (Ptyodactylus hasselquistii) I will call "the looping gecko" and Omani banded gecko (Trachydactylus hajarensis).


We spotted a few scorpions and camel spiders along the way to the snake area (Frank went there already and found vipers a few days before). After a pretty warm but pleasant night walk, we arrived at the place where we spotted 5 or 6 Arabian toad (Sclerophrys arabica). Alex tried to sit to photograph a toad when he noticed he was about to sit on a Oman saw-scaled viper (Echis omanensis). Later in the night, we found 2 more. Finally, our first day in the UAE was a real success, thanks to Frank's help.

Monday, the 7th of May

For that second day, we woke up early but the temperature was already unbearable for europeans like us. My first idea was to go for a swim in the ocean and my idea was shared by Alex and Karim. Moreover, I've been looking for a nice place with sharks in the UAE and found one not that far. So we headed to Dibba rock. We woke up pretty early because of the temperatures so we had some time to enjoy the few birds around us and try to take pictures of them.

When we sun started to burn our bodies and souls, we headed North to the famous Dibba rock. It took a few hours to go there and we surprisingly got some rain on the way (I mean, not enough to really notice, but still raining).


When finally arrived to Dibba rock, we didn't loose time and I went straight to the diving center with Karim to ask for a charter to that holy rock and have a snorkeling time with the sharks. We were lucky enough to have a good water clarity so they said "be ready in 30 minutes". I was so excited about the idea to see sharks !!! After 5 minutes by boat, we wet into the water and saw our first fishes. There were many down there. I swan around the rock starting by the "side where you won't see the sharks" to see it and then spend most of my time on the "side where the sharks are". It didn't take long before we saw one, then 2, and 3... There were many of them but they were so shy it was quite difficult to get close. I assume the best technic to do so is just to wait behind a rock for them to come your way. After the hour we paid for, the boat took us back to the beach and the guy said "just swim around the beach and you'll see many turtles". I knew there were turtles around but didn't expected to see one along the beach. We went into the water again and... damn he was right ! Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) were everywhere !

Chelonia mydas

We spend some time in the water as the weather was still too sunny and hot to do something else and then came back into the mountains for the night. We tried a bit of night driving on the road hoping for some gecko or snake to cross.

If we did see no snake, we met a few Omani banded geckos (Trachydactylus hajarensis) and, what was the highlight of the night, a Dhofar toad (Duttaphrynus dhufarensis) ! The place was so dry I'm still surprised you can find toads in there.

Tuesday, the 8th of May

Third day in that very hot country that UAE is and we planned to go South to Al-Aïn to see if we can go to a sandy place and find species related to sand deserts.

We had to drive 3 hours to get there and when we finally arrived, it was so hot that we had to spend a few hours in a mall where we ate something and enjoyed wi-fi connexion for a bit. I won't tell you how we got stuck in the sand to see a "ghost town" that doesn't exist on our way but I have to say thank you to the guy who helped us to get out of there ^^ There is not much to say about what happened in day time so we headed to a lake close to Al-Aïn in the evening and spent the last hours of daytime looking for some birds and reptiles. And there were a few (birds at least).

At dusk we managed to find our first reptiles of the day, a young Schmidt’s fringe-toed lizard (Acanthodactylus schmidti) hunting. Then, this find started our night and we went on a walk in the dunes around the lake. The most common reptile there seems to be the very nice looking Arabian sand gecko (Stenodactylus arabicus) with its eyes that reminds me of a famous movie, you may know ;) Two more gecko species were seen at this place. In the places with a little bit less sand, the Baluch ground gecko (Bunopus tuberculatus) was found and in very sandy places, you can easily find a Middle Eastern short-fingered gecko (Stenodactylus doriae).

I started walking a bit further, lost myself into vegetation close to the lake to finally end not that far from where we parked the car so I walked straight to the parking when my attention got caught by some strange curves in the sand. That were some tracks. I decided to follow it and after 5 minutes, I just met what I didn't expect at all to leave these tracks, an Arabian sand boa (Eryx jayakari). Karim and Alex had some time to enjoy it too when they came back to the car and we went on a last walk before leaving. We managed to find another one so they saw what kind of tracks it can leave in the sand.

Eryx jayakari

Wednesday, the 9th of May

As usual and still because of the 40°c in the early morning, we woke up early and went exploring the surrondings to find some wildlife. Mostly birds. We ended in a place where they use a lot of water to have very green grass and nice gardens so you can find some waterholes. Birds like that !

The wind woke up slowly as we were heading back to Dubaï area and it became so strong that looking for anything that could be alive was useless at this point. We preferred having some rest in wi-fi places waiting for the night to come. When dusk finally came, we started another night drive around. While doing this, we enterred a military zone without noticing it and we found a new reptile specie there, a East sand gecko (Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes). Obviously, when we started to take pictures of it, some people noticed the flashes and just told us we were not allowed to take pictures there. We missed the sign but there was one for sure, we've seen it on the way back. It was time to find a place to sleep so we drove across the desert, walked a bit in a place that seemed to be nice for reptiles but found nothing, and then slept in between the trees right on the side of the road.

Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes

Thursday, the 10th of May

Another "too hot" day starting in the UAE and I didn't want to suffer so I suggested to go to the beach and enjoy the sea. The problem is that, obviously, nothing's free in the UAE and you have to pay to enjoy the beach. We just wanted to swim so we paid and stayed on the beach for a few hours enjoying the sea. Underwater, there were absolutly nothing to notice as we were close to Abu Dhabi, the sea ground was only sand. I first took my GoPro hoping to film some fishes but as nothing worths a video uderwater, I left it on the beach and went back in the water with my mask... just in case. Karim and Alex were having a nap on the sand while I was looking underwater when I suddenly heard a sound. That kind of whistle I know very well and I cannot be wrong : there were dolphins around ! As soon as I heard that sound, I looked over the waves. People were screaming. A few seconds after, I just had a dolphin on my left side, like 5 meters away, and another one on my right side, also 5 meters away. Just WOW ! These were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea). Too bad I left my GoPro...

After that emotive moment, it was time to look for reptiles again. Frank was supposed to join us in the night to a place I've noticed while I was looking for new spots on Google Maps. It was a sandy place and we had a few more species to see in that kind of habitat. We arrived in the dunes in the evening and we came across quite a few Eastern sandfish (Scincus mitranus) but it took a while since we were able to photograph one of them. Doing this, I've been surprised by a Pharao eagle-owl. We came back to the car to eat something and then started our night research. It took only 2 minutes to Karim to be very close to walk on a snake, a Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) ! Frank joined us a few minutes after we left the viper and we started looking for tracks in the sand. We found a very nice looking one and we followed it until we finally came across an Arabian horned viper (Cerastes gasparettii). We met 2 in that night. We ended driving to another place we will sleep in the desert and we met a sand boa on the way. What a night !


Friday, the 11th of May

One of our last chance to see snakes so we decided to try in the mountains. After a few minutes walking in the sand close to the place we slept where we saw a few sand boa tracks, we came back to the Dibba rock area, enjoyed a swim with turtles during the day and tried to find reptiles at the end of the day in the mountains nearby.

Karim managed to find a Sinai agama (Pseudotrapelus sinaitus) but that's everything we've seen there so we tried a place we also noticed on Google maps, where we hoped to find some more snakes.

A long moment walking in the rocks where we found a few Musandam leaf-toed gecko (Asaccus caudivolvulus). In between 2 rocks, we met an Oman saw-scaled viper (Echis omanensis). That walk into the rocks could have been a peaceful night but we didn't notice we were at the border with Oman. Militaries just met us and kept us for like 2 hours asking many questions with an approximative english, looking at every single picture in the camera to finally conclude that we were, indeed, french herpers only looking for reptiles and who didn't know they were close to the border. Not very funny to live but they've been quite nice to us so when I think about it now I find this story pretty funny.

Sunday, the 12th of May

Last day in the UAE, last chance to to see something new. We wanted to have all the chances by our sides so we went on the internet and look for as many informations as we can find and I managed to find a place where we should meet some spiny-tailed lizards. We drove to that place in the afternoon. It's a very wild area with lakes, sand of course and some trees. Wildlife is awesome, it was the only place we've seen Mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella) that really looks wild. Bird diversity is awesome too. Then, in between 2 dunes, were the Egyptian spiny–tailed lizards (Uromastyx aegyptia) basking in the sun close to their shelter.

Night came very fast, time for us to join Frank to have a last herping night back to the sandy place we've seen many species the other night. When we arrived there, the first thing we've seen were flashes. We knew Frank found something and we ran to him to see what it was. What a surprise when we realized that he just found an Arabian horned viper (Cerastes gasparettii) that has horns (the ones we met on the other night had none). When we finally took enough pictures of it to be ready to leave it be in the sand, Frank told us "do you want to end in beauty?". He took us to some tracks we didn't hope to find in our dreams and we followed it to a hole. They started digging and then it happened. A Desert monitor (Varanus griseus) came out ! We took pictures of it as it was our very last hours before our flight back but Frank made sure the monitor was O.K after that by staying around in the morning and waiting close to the hole the monitor lizard slept in to see if it came out, and it did. This was the very last reptile we've met.


I must admit that I was pretty worried about the U.A.E as you can't really go for a walk in the desert and I didn't really know about what you can do or not. The high temperatures scared me a bit but thanks to Frank and our determination, we managed to have a very nice trip and see much more than I expected.

--- SPECIES LIST ---

Duttaphrynus dhufarensis

Sclerophrys arabica

Acanthodactylus schmidti

Asaccus caudivolvulus

Asaccus gallagheri

Bunopus tuberculatus

Cerastes gasperettii

Chelonia mydas

Echis carinatus

Echis omanensis

Eryx jayakari

Pristurus rupestris

Pseudotrapelus sinaitus

Ptyodactylus hasselquistii

Scincus mitranus

Stenodactylus arabicus

Stenodactylus doriae

Stenodactylus leptocosymbotes

Trachydactylus hajarensis

Uromastyx aegyptia

Varanus griseus

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