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Hi everybody,

a few days ago I went to the Coronella austriaca population near my hometown. I found a few new born Coronellas basking on stones and one blind baby. I´ve never saw individuals like this in nature (only some captive breed animals with this handicap). Here some shoots.

Habitat:



Coronellas in situ:





I thought that something is wrong with this little snake....but I dont know what at this time ...



...as she raised her head i saw it




Did you ever find a snake like that in nature ? And it´s a bad cnance or its a sign of a isolated population (inbreed) ? To inbreed I must say that this is the only animal like this I found there (all others were normal, about 20 individuals).

Andre,

did it have just one eye or none?
I think this is a genetic defect, which occurs from time to time and has nothing to do with inbreeding!
Also I think, inbreeding is much to overestimated It will work without problems for dozens to hundreds of generations, but in limited populations some genetic mutants, bad for the survival of the species, may spred over the whole population in a relatively short time.

Mario

Hi Mario,

Thanks for the informations.

Right side has no eye and on the left side this...maybe a rest of an not functional eye...

Did you set it free afterwards? Because it has no chance to survive...

Ilias Strachinis wrote:Did you set it free afterwards? Because it has no chance to survive...

Who knows? I believe they hunt by smell and take the prey from their hiding places, not? Anyway.. Natural selection will take care of these...

Tom Hoogesteger wrote:

Ilias Strachinis wrote:Did you set it free afterwards? Because it has no chance to survive...

Natural selection will take care of these...

Yes you're right,
anyway, i think this little fellow has no many chances to hide from predators...

Hi,

I let the snake go...nature would make the right with it