Jesse and I had been talking for some time about exploring the herpetofauna of the Philippines together and since his flight was cancelled last year, it seemed that this year would be the perfect time to go together… and so we did.

Luzon

Our first stop was the Luzon island. We wanted to ‘quickly’ collect the rental car (mind you, it took around 3 hours…), get some coffee and head to the jungle in search of our first target - Trimeresurus flavomaculatus.

The very first snake we saw was a pre-shed Ptyas luzonensis, and this encounter set us in a great mood for herping.

The hike in our chosen area, however, proved extremely treacherous and steep. We were following an overgrown slope, below which we could hear a stream but the only thing we could actually see were tree tops. Anyway, that’s where we found our first Trimeresurus flavomaculatus and it was even prettier than we’d imagined!

We then somehow managed to get down to the stream we heard throughout our hike and it turned out to be an almost dried out, slowly flowing small stream (still very steep) where we found more pit vipers, a few frogs, inverts and a juvenile Oxyrhabdium leporinum leporinum. That’s where our time in Luzon was up and we had to rush back to Manila airport to board our flight to Basco in Batanes.

A quick check-in and a cup of coffee later, and with no sleep after the night’s herping, we were on the plane ready to explore our next destination. Flights to Batanes are rather special and tend to be delayed or cancelled a lot, so we were happy that everything went so smoothly.

Batanes

Batanes welcomed us with a hot sunny weather (32ºC) and absolutely no rain. Not the best herping conditions but still… we went to the hotel for a short nap before heading out again.

We started off earlier to check out different areas for potential herping before the nightfall. We then headed to the first spot we wanted to explore. The stream there was completely dry, it was 29ºC and the heat was just unbearable. We walked the first 100m, 200m, 300m and… nothing. We already needed a little break, drank some water and finally, we spotted a snake - a Gonyosoma on a tree. That was a good start!

We took a few shots of it and we continued our hike. Around half an hour later we got our first McGregor's pit viper (Trimeresurus mcgregori), which is an endemic species to Batanes islands. The variety of morphs in which they come is incredible! It was high up on a slope and it surely was a wonderful opening of our time on the island. We found 4 more individuals of this species that night, along with a Lycodon alcalai and Psammodynastes pulverulentus. Not bad at all for just one night.

On our way back to the hotel we thought we’d also check out the coast and see if we could find any sea kraits. Sure enough, we almost immediately spotted both Laticauda colubrina and Laticauda laticaudata!

Before heading out on the second day, we managed to sleep a while longer and we spent the day exploring this beautiful island, scouting new locations for the night’s herping.

The second night started with a large yellow female Trimeresurus mcgregori and a new wolf snake species for us, Lycodon muelleri, followed by a few other morphs of McGregor’s pit vipers. It ended with a stunning reticulated python, an unquestionable star of the night for me. Such a beautiful snake!

During the last (not quite as it turned out later) night in Batanes we got a bit restless as we still hadn’t seen white McGregor’s morph which we wanted the most. We decided to explore a new stream, hoping our search would be successful this time. We parked our bikes, I went down the stream, Jesse went upstream and shortly after I heard “I HAVE A WHITE ONE!”

It’s such a fantastic feeling to see a snake one was looking for! 🥰

We also saw a few other interesting creatures, including a coconut crab which I really hoped to see.

The very last finding of that night was a totally monstrous (easily over 120 cm) female Trimeresurus mcgregori. She was really impressive and the scar on her face made her look even more badass.

The next morning we were supposed to go back to Manila and then head to Palawan but our flight was cancelled due to bad weather. It was beginning June and the airline wanted to offer us a flight on… 21 June! Luckily, their representative at the airport understood our situation and she put us on a morning flight the next day.

Not too happy and rather stressed, we got to a hotel and had to rearrange our itinerary for the upcoming days as all reservations were now useless. After finding our dream snake - the white McGregor’s viper - we weren’t motivated anymore so after a short night hike we went back to the coast to chill with sea kraits (we found many again) and then back to the hotel 🍻.

Palawan

In the morning we successfully boarded the flight to Manila and we then took a flight to Palawan. After collecting the car, we topped up our water reserves, left our stuff at the hotel and headed directly to the jungle. We arrived at our first location rather late and it looked like we’d have another long night of herping ahead of us.

The conditions were much better as it was more humid and warm so we were quite pumped. The night started off with a blunt-headed slug snake (Aplopeltura boa), which we both found cute, so it set us in a good mood.

We encountered many frogs and insects but I chose to focus on herping instead, hence not many invertebrate photos this time.

Our first pit viper find was an adorable juvenile Tropidolaemus subannulatus.

We also found an Opisthotropis typica and a Cyclemys dentata in a nearby stream, but except for frogs there wasn’t much more in that area, which is why we decided to go deeper into the forest.

We found a few more Tropidolaemus subannulatus and a Rhabdophis chrysargos…

…and a massive gravid female Trimeresurus schultzei. We were absolutely speechless and this was definitely one of my top wildlife encounters. She was a perfect model and after a few photos we left her completely undisturbed.

We spent the remaining two nights exploring the area more. I took photos of some frogs, inverts and even birds (see the Ceyx rufidorsa below); we also found a juvenile Trimeresurus schultzei and a few more Tropidolaemus subannulatus.

We then returned to Manila. Jesse continued his journey to Bangkok, I travelled to Anilao with Karolina to scuba dive for a couple of days.

Jesse turned out to be a fantastic herping partner with a set of eagle eyes and good stamina. I hope we’ll get to herp together again one day 😎.

More photos from the Philippines in our Flickr albums:

• Reptiles and amphibians

• Invertebrates

• Underwater

• Other wildlife