One of the most impressive habitats in Israel is the extensive dune system that stretches along Israel's Mediterranean coast. The dunes are at their widest and most impressive in the Western Negev, along the Egyptian border, which is where we will go and look for sand-specialist reptiles.
We will leave Tel Aviv in the early afternoon of Thursday, and reach the Negev a couple of hours before sunset to search for diurnal species such as Acanthodactylus scutellatus, A. aegyptius, Trapelus savignii and the elusive Scincus scincus.
After the sun sets, we will follow tracks to try and find the jewels of the crown: Stenodactylus sthenodactylus, and Stenodactylus doriae, as well as such species as Chalcides sepsoides, Lytorhynchus diadema, Spalerosophis diadema, and the venomous sidewinding Cerastes cerastes and Cerastes vipera. If we are extremely lucky we may even encounter Varanus griseus and Walterinnesia aegyptia. The plan is to sleep on the dune (bring sleeping bags - we may be able to provide some for you if you require them) .
The W. Negev trip is not an official part of the conference. In fact, the biogeography class of the School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, is going on this tour and you are welcome to meet us at the dunes. We will go to the dunes on the early afternoon of Thursday the 30th, around 14:00 to beat the Tel Aviv traffic (Thursday is the worst possible day), and manage to arrive in the dunes when the sun is still out and diurnal species (not geckos...) are up and about.So this too will be a self-driven tour: some of us will bring our own cars, but if there is no room and you want to go please arrange to rent a car (can be done on Thursday morning though). We will return to Tel Aviv on Friday morning (May 31st.), but of course if you have a car you may as well go and see some other things - perhaps even the one or two attractions Israel has that are not directly reptile-related.
We will leave Tel Aviv in the early afternoon of Thursday, and reach the Negev a couple of hours before sunset to search for diurnal species such as Acanthodactylus scutellatus, A. aegyptius, Trapelus savignii and the elusive Scincus scincus.
After the sun sets, we will follow tracks to try and find the jewels of the crown: Stenodactylus sthenodactylus, and Stenodactylus doriae, as well as such species as Chalcides sepsoides, Lytorhynchus diadema, Spalerosophis diadema, and the venomous sidewinding Cerastes cerastes and Cerastes vipera. If we are extremely lucky we may even encounter Varanus griseus and Walterinnesia aegyptia. The plan is to sleep on the dune (bring sleeping bags - we may be able to provide some for you if you require them) .
The W. Negev trip is not an official part of the conference. In fact, the biogeography class of the School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, is going on this tour and you are welcome to meet us at the dunes. We will go to the dunes on the early afternoon of Thursday the 30th, around 14:00 to beat the Tel Aviv traffic (Thursday is the worst possible day), and manage to arrive in the dunes when the sun is still out and diurnal species (not geckos...) are up and about.So this too will be a self-driven tour: some of us will bring our own cars, but if there is no room and you want to go please arrange to rent a car (can be done on Thursday morning though). We will return to Tel Aviv on Friday morning (May 31st.), but of course if you have a car you may as well go and see some other things - perhaps even the one or two attractions Israel has that are not directly reptile-related.