Greetings fellow herpers!
Here is an old report of a great vacation in a rarely visited country.
Last summer i went with my wife to visit her parents who live in Moldova. We spent about a week there, but due to the fact that we had some family business to take care of, only went herping every other day.
To be honest, we were hoping for some Aesculapian or maybe Large Whip Snakes, but no such luck, mostly because of the rainy weather.
First herps of the trip were some Marsh Frogs seen while we went to a pond close to home for some fishing and birding.
On another occasions, the herps came to us , like this Green Toad that hopped right into the house one night.
We found this weird and pretty thing in our garden as well:
Once the rains stopped we were able to finally see some reptiles:
On our last day we herped around some abandoned forest cabins near the Ukrainian border, and we finally found some serpents:
Now, here's the thing: the snake is considered rare and endangered there, and when we got back and checked The Red Data Book Of Moldova, we were pleasantly surprised with our discovery:
List of observed species:
AMPHIBIANS
Marsh Frog - Pelophylax ridibundus – lots
Green Toad - Epidalea viridis – 4
REPTILES
Green Lizard – Lacerta viridis – 10
Sand Lizard – Lacerta agilis – 20
Grass Snake – Natrix natrix – 3
Smooth snake - Coronella austriaca - 2
Happy Herping !