{"id":8644,"date":"2025-07-03T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moroccoherps.com\/?page_id=8644"},"modified":"2025-07-31T15:25:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T15:25:48","slug":"tunisia-trip","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.moroccoherps.com\/en\/tunisia-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia Herpetological Trip – May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gabri Mtnez<\/p>\n

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At the end of 2024,\u00a0I was wondering in a possible trip to Tunisia.\u00a0After checking that the country is safe in internet, I bought the flights in January.<\/p>\n

I talked to some friends about the trip and very fast Alberto (from bicheando web<\/a>) and To\u00f1o (a Salamanca nature photographer) booked their flights too.<\/p>\n

I made an itinerary to visit the mythical Lake Ichkeul for pink Daboia mauritanica<\/em>, good N. astreptophora<\/em> and Timon<\/em> spots in North Tunisia, later visit Bou Hedma for Scincopus<\/em>, Naja<\/em> and Echis <\/em>and finally sand dunes for Cerastes<\/em> and Varanus<\/em>. We would have 8 days so it was a pretty ambitious plan but we like difficult goals. I was checking some papers about water cisterns and pits in the Tunisia arid areas and I was sure that we would find Human Infrastructures to Conduct, Retain or Obtain Water (\u201cHICROW<\/strong>\u201d) to check.<\/p>\n

During some IUCN discussions for North African species, I had the pleasure to know Ridha Ouni.\u00a0I proposed him to join us during the trip. 3 in a car during a many kilometer\u2019s trip is usually the perfect number but Alberto and To\u00f1o also though that visiting for first time Tunisia with a local person could be good.<\/p>\n

Ridha said OK to join us and proposed some changes in my itinerary, with a stop to see Trogonophis<\/em>, in a spot with also Psammodromus blanci<\/em> and Eryx jaculus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Itinerary with sleeping places per day: nights 1-2 in Khroufa, night 3 in El Kef, nights 4-5 in Bou Hedma, night 6 in Ksar Guillane, night 7 in Matmata and night 8 close to the Carthago International Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In February 2025 I saw a post of David Brouwer in Facebook, they visited Tunisia and checked some HICROW, finding some reptiles inside, so he confirmed that south Tunisia is like Morocco. We will have a \u201cTunisia water holes expedition\u201d. David helped us with spots that completed my “google earth” database.<\/p>\n

Few weeks before the trip, Ridha send us a message saying that a group of his friends from Tunisia and another from Algeria wanted to join us during the trip. In general, we do not like big groups (that usually means too large photo sessions, disturb animals, coordination problems, etc\u2026), but these guys respected our itinerary and top species so we agreed. Finally, we would be:<\/p>\n

A) During the whole trip:<\/p>\n

\u201cSpanish Car\u201d:<\/p>\n