Switzerland: introduced Dice Snakes

[Mario Schweiger]

Saturday I have been at the SIGS (Swiss tortoise and turtle association) meeting in Luzern.
Sunday morning we visited the introduced Natrix tessellata population at the northern banks of lake Alpnach.
Before a few years, when they start to build the walking and biking trail they have made a counting, marking, capture and recapture and came to a result of approx. 2´000 snakes.
Nowadays there are a lot more.

walking trail along the northern banks of lake Alpnach

looking for Natrix tessellata on and between the rocks along the lake

Natrix tessellata. They are everywhere: on the rocks, on branches......

and there will be many more in future..........

its like at humans: headless during having sex!

also the Podarcis muralis are introduced!

Podarcis muralis female

Podarcis muralis

Mario

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

No aspis francisciredi or aspis x ammodytes?

[Mario Schweiger]

Jeroen,

not one cloud , much to hot for vipers!
Urs Jost and Rolf Berglas have seen 4 Lacerta viridis (also introduced, what else? ), two of them mating - while I have been on the other side of the road (lake side) to make pictures of the tessellatas.
This area, called "Lopper" seems to be the largest outdoor pan in Europe:
Vipera aspis, Vipera ammodytes, Natrix tessellata, Lacerta viridis, Podarcis muralis - all introduced!

Mario

[Daniel Kane]

Wild nose-horned vipers live in Switzerland!? I never knew that.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Wild nose-horned vipers live in Switzerland!?

Please re-read the 2 final words of Mario's last post

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Do they have also native herps in this area????

[Mario Schweiger]

Yes, e.g. Natrix natrix helvetica.
But the Grass snake is displaced in large parts of the lake banks by the Dice snake.
The Dice snake doesnt enter the reed parts of the banks, there Natrix natrix is living now.

Mario

[Daniel Kane]

Please re-read the 2 final words of Mario's last post

Yes, I worded it wrongly. I meant these snakes were introduced and now live there in the wild, even though they are not naturally occurring there. I never knew that.