Herptrip Montenegro-Croatia-Slovenia 2012

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

arrrhhh it's difficult for me to understand sometimes and google not really help.
These ursinii are macrops or a new and unknow subspecies ?

[Berislav Horvatic]

arrrhhh it's difficult for me to understand sometimes and google not really help.
These ursinii are macrops or a new and unknow subspecies ?

POSSIBLY a new subspecies:

Par ailleurs, les populations analysées de Croatie se
révèlent génétiquement complètement différentes
des autres populations de Vipera ursinii macrops
(même taxon que les populations de Bosnie Herzégovine
et Montenegro). Ce qui nous permet de suggérer une
nouvelle sous-espèce pour ces populations croates.
Pour ceci, il est toutefois nécessaire de faire une
analyse moléculaire complémentaire avec des
marqueurs nucléaires, combinés à une analyse des
caractères morphologiques, avant de statuer sur
l’existence d’une nouvelle sous-espèce.

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=984#p7577

[Berislav Horvatic]

I also like the colours and contrast of that male ursinii. Does anyone share my impression
that those "hay colours" are more common in the lowland subspecies?

Here's a photo of a male from the same locality, at some 1300 m a.s.l. The colour is beautiful indeed,
but should not be taken as anything standard or even common.

PHOTO: Ivo Peranić, 27 May 2006 (Yes, Ivo was the first, he discovered "Mt. X".)

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

... we did'nt have chance to find a male so beautiful ... very nice.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

POSSIBLY a new subspecies:

Par ailleurs, les populations analysées de Croatie se
révèlent génétiquement complètement différentes
des autres populations de Vipera ursinii macrops
(même taxon que les populations de Bosnie Herzégovine
et Montenegro).
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=984#p7577

Ok nothing new from the last year. Thanks

[Thomas Bader]

Fantastic trip report in ammodytes heaven. Excellent photos!
only remark: Lacerta agilis bosnica instead of bosniensis

@Bero: what a beautiful ursinii!

Thomas

[Berislav Horvatic]

@Bero: what a beautiful ursinii!

You can see a photo of the same animal in Guido Kreiner's book Schlangen Europas / Snakes of Europe
(2007) on page 273, Fig. 389. The locality declared there is "Dinara mountains", which only means that
Ivo had decided to lie here a little bit (pardon, "to evade the full truth") in the noble wish to hide/protect
his freshly (in 2006, just a year before) discovered "Mt. X".

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Hi, here is the coomplete report:

http://www.batraciens-reptiles.com/montenegro_croatie_faune.htm

Hope you enjoy it !

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Hi, here is the coomplete report:

http://www.batraciens-reptiles.com/montenegro_croatie_faune.htm

Hope you enjoy it !

Your "neotene vulgaris" (in the text even called helveticus) is according to my guessing a neotene alpestris. The first of those (so-called common) Montenegrin alpestris I see on photo, I think.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Nice report PY
The ammodytes variety is fantastic...specialy those from Postojna (city center)...ooops ...I mentioned the locality
...and ofcourse the Virpazar male is fantastic!
congrats for the melanistic berus you have been looking for...

LOL and LOL and and Thanks !!