Guatemala...Heloderma Reserve

The Heloderma Reserve is situated in the Montagua Valley, southeastern Guatemala. It's a very special place with unique, seasonally dry forests that are home to an amazingly rare reptile - the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard, Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, which was only discovered in 1984.   There are only about 200 of these large venomous lizards left in the wild and this is the place to see them.

'Heloderma' is a reference to the 'studded or beaded skin' of the lizard - more like armour that normal scales. Their venom is a potent Hemotoxin, which isn't used to kill prey but is used for defence. It has some nasty side effects in vertebrates as our host, biologist Daniel Ariano Snachez can testify. He's been bitten twice during the many years he's been studying them and experienced sever local pain and swelling lasting about 12 hours, dizziness and vomiting...lots of vomiting. He assures us that is the worst part of envenomation. Vomiting starts about 20 minutes after the bite and doesn't stop for about 3 hours with intense pain for 20-24 hours. He tells us "you really don't want to get bit".

Unlike snakes all Heloderma species (which includes the more well known Gila Monster) envenomate by chewing, which releases venom from glands on the lower jaw, which mixes with saliva and then enters the bite wound.

Two of the research team fitting a GPS
tracker to one of the animals

Here you can see the beaded scales

Me being very careful to keep my fingers
away from that mouth.

One of the bird highlights here was Russet-crowned Motmot (although I didn't manage to get any photos) but while we were waiting for them to appear I did get to film a phenomenon that I've always wanted to witness. Somewhere further up the valley it must have been raining...

We had more great reptiles too, including the highly venomous Central American Rattlesnake,Crotalus simus.

Central American Rattler, Crotalus simus

A bite from one of these guys is certainly debilitating and potentially fatal. They produce severe necrosis at and around the bite site which often leads to patients requiring a fasciotomy or even amputation. That said, they don't want to bite us.Venom is a precious commodity reserved for prey and only used on humans who attack or molest them...so don't mess with them!

The scales are heavily keeled giving a rough appearance.

The long, forked tongue is constantly tasting the air for prey.

Another difficult to see species due to their fossorial habits - Mexican Burrowing Python, Loxocemus bicolor. They have a beautiful rainbow-like iridescent sheen in good light.

Mexican Burrowing Python, Loxocemus bicolor
They have a beautiful iridescent sheen.

Mexican Burrowing Python, Loxocemus bicolor
Showing it's shovel-shaped snout...for burrowing.

Mexican Burrowing Python, Loxocemua bicolor

Back at the reserve station we pick up a few birds including my first Brown-crested Flycatcher...

Brown-crested Flycatcher

...and a smart Lesser Ground Cuckoo.

Lesser Ground Cuckoo
Picked up on it's call by our bird guide Daniel Schumann.

Our time at Heloderma Reserve was all too brief but with so much filming to cram into our 18 day shoot, it was time to leave again. Tomorrow we would be looking for Quetzals.