Afghan Wildlife - Picture Heavy

Just wanted to share some of what I've seen since I've been here.

Geckos that chill on the sandbags at night.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0696.jpg
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Snake that I found on the FOB. Unfortunately someone felt the need to kill it.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0702.jpg
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Toad near a leaky water storage basin.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0158.jpg

A large camel spider, member of the order Solifugae.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0571.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0576.jpg
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And a much smaller one!
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0710.jpg

Some beetles, a HUGE roach, and ant drinking some spilled OJ and something else (no idea what it is).
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0607.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0679.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0682.jpg
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A dove nest.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0549.jpg
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And finally, a little bird with a mohawk.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...k/DSCF0356.jpg

I still hope to see a scorpion or two and a saw scaled viper would be nice too!

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing! Its sad someone decided to kill that snake.

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Cool! That gecko has some long little toes. Have you found any bugs eating on your garden?

Man that is one evil looking spider. and that snake you found do you know what kind it is to me it looks like a cobra.

Not sure about the snake. I looked online but was unable to identify what species it was. It did appear to have short fixed fangs in the front of it's mouth, which would make it either a cobra or a krait, I believe. I hate that snakes/camel spiders/basically all of the cool animals over here are so persecuted by virtually all soldiers.

I have had some aphids on the garden, but the ladybugs did their job well and ate any that I didn't squish myself! :)

Thats sucks about the snake! On another note did you know that camel spiders are becoming available at some reptile stores! Thats crazy right?! I am not sure I could buy one! Spiders scare the crap outta me!

I've never seen them for sale myself but I've heard that they are alll wild caught and rarely survive long in captivity because people don't provide the proper husbandry. If you are doing it right you shouldn't see them unless you spy on them at night! I'd still love to have one myself but am thinking that I need to draw the line on new animals now that I'm up to 7 BPs.

Cool pics. I like the camel spiders.

Cool pics! That spider is kinda jeeby.

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Man that is some cool! I want those lizzards!

Sorry but I skipped right bast the bugs. That crap'll give me nightmares haha.

Thanks for sharing!

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My dad used to tell me stories about the camel spider when he was stationed in korea, said you could bounce a rubber mallet off of them and they keep on truckin. Also told me that saturday night was "fight night" where everyone would go out and find a bug or somethimg to put in the pit, camel spider never lost hahaha

Thanks for sharing the pics. It looks like it could be a caspian cobra. There is a wikipedia page for a caspian and if you click on the picture on that page under the word Description so it is expanded, the head looks identicle to your picture. Also reading through the dscription of markings given, it seems like a pretty good match.

When I went to the repticon here in Atlanta last month, there was a table who had about 10 adult camel spiders. Man those are the nastiest looking creatures. I mean, even if I didn't hate spiders already, those are enough to make me scream like a little girl.

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Originally Posted by Gabe Rienzo

Also told me that saturday night was "fight night" where everyone would go out and find a bug or somethimg to put in the pit, camel spider never lost hahaha

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My brother in law had a pet camel spider when he was away at sand camp. He had that thing for a good 6 months until his buddy put this tiny little scorpion they found in its tank with it. He said the scorpion made a beeline for the camel spider and dropped it. They looked up the scorpion and it said, "Main diet: Camel spiders...". Then he had a pet scorpion. I forget what kind of scorpion it was, but apparently he was one tough little bugger.

That's awesome! I have a little 8"X8" exo terra nano terrarium that I ordered online but I can't catch a camel spider to put in there. I would LOVE a scorpion as I used to keep an emporer that was awesome to watch eat and just mill about.

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Originally Posted by gsarchie

That's awesome! I have a little 8"X8" exo terra nano terrarium that I ordered online but I can't catch a camel spider to put in there. I would LOVE a scorpion as I used to keep an emporer that was awesome to watch eat and just mill about.

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Why cant you catch one?

As a whole we see a lot but most people kill them as soon as they see them so I've only see a few of them actually alive.

Haha ohhhh. Yea now that i think of it everyone else may not appreciate your pet as much as some of the members on here would. :rofl:

Awesome pictures! I don't really like bugs or spiders but I can appreciate good pictures of them through the safety of my computer screen. Lol!

That spider though... if I saw one of those in my house I would probably move. Spiders freak me out!!

I enjoyed the cute little gecko :)

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Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing. :)

I just got back from the Khandahar Provence. I will post some pics tonight of the stud I saw there. Camel spiders and crabs. It was crazy seeing a crab there lol. We named him Mr. Pinchy. Ran into a few snakes but we kept our distance because we couldn't tell if it was venomous. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it but I can tell you it was sand colored and big like 3 foot. Scares the crap out of me on tower guard.

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Originally Posted by darthkevin

I just got back from the Khandahar Provence. I will post some pics tonight of the stud I saw there. Camel spiders and crabs. It was crazy seeing a crab there lol. We named him Mr. Pinchy. Ran into a few snakes but we kept our distance because we couldn't tell if it was venomous. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it but I can tell you it was sand colored and big like 3 foot. Scares the crap out of me on tower guard.

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Thanks again all. I am at FOB Sweeney in Zabul Province, so RC South just like yourself, and am the FSO and fires/S1 advisor for the kandak that our SFAT advises.

When I was at FOB Lagman (Zabul Province) in 2008, I saw a couple of the little saw scaled vipers. Unfortunately, I only saw one that was alive. The rest of them were on the end of a shovel. Our local Afgan workers killed them on site.

I can't blame them for killing them I suppose, as they are exceptionally uneducated. They are in the process of closing dow Lagman and moving everything there to Apache. I have moved from Bullard down to Sweeney, Slim, which is the SE Zabul district of Shinkai.

Back in '08, Shinkai was always a good place to find a fight. Hope it's better these days...

Awesome pics, I really like the gecko and camel spiders.

Hey Archie

Thanks for sharing those pictures. I always like to see what's around in the world, especially field herping pictures!

Max

Not really. Still a lot of people that either passively or actively support the TB but from what I understand it has gotten much better since '08.