10- The second streak

Just like when I came from Etosha, I had another stroke of luck, transformed into the form of new animals.

It all started on a great plain. One of my favorite areas, a huge extension like a sea of sand, surrounded by mountains and with some hills on one side, creating nooks and crannies between them where there was more shrubby vegetation.

It was our turn to look for that area, far from the new house we had moved into a few days before. It was not difficult to meet mammals in that area.

That day we came across three mountain zebras, a common animal on the area but quite elusive and difficult to see. They were responsible for a lot of the roads we followed; the "zebra tracks", since they routinely choose the same routes and go in a row, leaving a clear path in the sediment, from which I suppose the name of our city zebra tracks will come.

And not happy with that, we also ran into a group of oryx, who were running parallel to the car for a couple of minutes.

And we finally got to the place where we had to look. We started doing our transects, but I saw some quiver tree (Aloidendron dichotomum) logs on the floor. And I picked up two without any sign of life, but in the third one I saw a little gecko running away. I looked for it and saw that it was not the gecko we were used to seeing (Pachydactylus montanus), but a new species. It was a Pachydactylus punctatus. And so the streak began, with this beautiful gecko.

In that transect I did not meet any more reptiles, but I could see again the oryx group and another sprinbok group, running quickly when they noticed my presence. I returned home very happy that day.

Bronking springbok

The next day, while we were looking for reptiles after sunset, we decided to do it in the mountain.

I was walking in my transect and saw an elongated animal a few steps away from me. I knew what it was and I picked it up. It tried to stick its head and "sting" into me, and later started its chemical defense, shitting itself. As strange as it sounds from the description above, it was a snake. It was a species related to the one I found on the previous run, it was a Rhinotyphlops lalandei, a species we had seen once before before we moved, but so strange that it was impossible not to be impressed by it.

It is very similar to the other one in appearance, but in its head it has an adaptation like a shovel to dig and in its tail the "sting" that I was commenting, and that I find fascinating since I do not find such a mechanism effective. No doubt a curious animal.

Rhinotyphlops lalandei: Head and "sting" detail

But a few steps later, I was hissed by the animal that would help me continue the streak of new species. The mountain adder (Bitis xeropaga). A small snake like the horned adder, but without horns. And, above all, this species has evolved into an almost perfect crypsis. Its eyes look like stone that match its granite-like body, which also shows a beautiful pattern.

After these two great finds I did not expect to continue with the streak, but the next night, in the middle of the darkness, on a plain near the house, another animal would surprise me. As soon as we started our transect, looking through the bushes I saw something tiny moving among the branches. I put my finger in front of it and it climbed up. It was a gecko about 3 centimeters long. It was a Goggia lineata, the smallest gecko in southern Namibia. And I could see another individual up ahead, but that one slipped through the bush. It's amazing how hidden life is in these remote desert areas.

And the last one of this streak I didn't expect at all. It was a species I was really looking forward to. I saw a lizard go under a rock. It was the same size as a species we used to meet, which had reddish areas like the one I had just seen, so nothing made me suspect anything new until I picked up the rock and saw it looking at me for a couple of seconds. It was a Nucras tessellata, a very colorful and beautiful lizard. But it was very fast, it ran away under my boot and as I lifted it carefully so as not to hurt it and catch it, it was already running away to a hole under a rock. I couldn't take pictures of it, but its image doesn't go away from my mind. I leave a photo kindly shared by Gabriel Martínez so that you can see the animal.

Photo shared by Gabriel Martínez