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I thought I would share some pictures I took in India last month. These are mostly taken at Leoladeo Ghana National Park SW of Delhi. My guide was worth his weight - would have seen no herps with out him. He explained that most herps were down for the winter. The few we saw where mostly basking near cover they would retreat to nightly.

I scrambled under a bush to see the python on the ridge crawl into a dense thicket. The turtles where thick, and some big as our big sliders. I also saw huge softshelled turtles floating at the water surface.

The snake charmer in me came out on a street in Delhi There were so many street kids swarming me that the snake charmer had to compress his whole routine into about 30 seconds. That was fine with me - the snaakes didn't look particularly healthy and I hated to even encourage the show.

The python track was the first sign of pythons in the park. At first I didn't believe my guide when he pointed at the track and smiled. I hopped off the rickety bike I had rented to get around the park and got my nose right down to the ground - sure enough, I could see distinct impressions the ventrals had made!

Monkeys were everywhere, from the forest to the city center.

This darker snake was in shed. I approached slowly, snapping pictures. I was nearly convinced he was dead when he suddenly turned back and shot into the hole. The light colored python in a previous photo also lay motionless until I got close enough to jump on her - but then nearly exploded into action and was down the hole in a flash. My guide about jumped out of his skin and ended up about 50 feet away grinning sheepishly.

And another habitat shot.

I'll return in the rainy season when its more likely to see cobras and other herps.

Wow very cool pics. I really enjoyed the pics of the street performers and the Indian Python. It must be difficult to see those snakes in such poor conditions.
A large portion of my family lives in a relatively small village in India. Everytime they come over they have many stories to tell me about all of their recent herp encounters in the past few months. One of these days i'll get to go visit them for a change!

-Scott
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Scott Wahlberg

Wow! We were in Keoladeo Ghana for one morning in December 1989 and it was too damn cold for any herp activity. I was hoping the sun would come out so we could maybe find something basking, but the fog never lifted.

The guide showed us a couple of python burrows, but no one was anywhere near the entrance that day.

It is certainly a herpy looking park. I would love to go back. We also spent some time out in the desert of NW Rajasthan. Too cold for herps then, but many it looked interesting!
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

How cold does it get in Indian python habitat?

Well consider that people are freezing to death in Delhi this month - just about 150 miles north, I assume it gets fairly cold in the park too. In late November, when I was there, it was cool at night - probably 55F but warmed to the low 80s daytime with a warm sun.
It was obvious that the snakes were wintering at the porcupine burrows. My guide said they would disperse through the park come spring.

I think it is interesting how many species of snakes tolerate much cooler temps in the wild than alot of us hobbiests believe. Do you think the burrow temps where they hide are warmer than the air due to the earth radiating heat absorbed during the day?

I agree. It is likely warmer in the burrow. Because its essentially a desert environment it gets colder at night than a humid area. Supposed to be hotter than he11 in the summer there. I know for sure that cuddling up with those big porcupines wouldn't be they key

joe

When you hired your guide, was it hard to find one that was knowledgable about herps?
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- Andy Gottscho

1.0 Sandfire x Yellow Bearded Dragon - "Irwin"
0.1 Albino Black Ratsnake - "Misty"
0.1 California Mountain Kingsnake (multifasciata) - "Bandit"

Wow that's cool. I would love to see a python in the wild.

wow,absolutley fantastic....don't see enough of that area on forums...good choice,obviously!btw that's a great find,the python m.mollurus(sp.?)....esp. the light one,looks quite healthy...can i ask what the trip cost you,total?and also how did you find the locals' attitudes towards snakes,if there was such a generalization to be made?

Yes, they're locally known as Indian Rock pythons and latin is P. m. molurus.

Airfare (direct from Chicago, nearly over the north pole and almost due south to Delhi!) cost $1600. You can sleep for anywhere from $20 per night up to hundreds. November is the high season so everything is more expensive. And, of course, sine I'm a westerner I paid anywhere from 2 to 20 times what a local would

Most locals just cringed when I mentioned I was looking for pythons, or snakes in general. The guide, who was hired at the park entrance and is an official government guide. They are very knowledgable about where to find animals of all sorts in the park. They use their cell phones to update each other throughout the day.

I've always hated the idea of hiring guides until I tried it - now I would never consider not doing so. Even so, he candidly admitted he knew less about snakes than he wanted to and planned on studying more - though books on the subject would be very hard for him to get ahold of, and he probably couldn't afford to buy one even if he could find it.