Prespes 18-25. May 2013

[Julius Zidorn]

Hi,

Had a great time at Prespa two weeks ago with my father. Within six full days of herping we found 20 species of amphibinas (7) and reptiles (13), included our "most-wanted´s", Eastern Spadefoot and Nose-horned viper! A few more will follow soon...
Have fun!
Julius

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Lovely! Next time, I'm going to spend more time there...

[Julius Zidorn]

... some more ...
@ Jeroen: Maybe I can come with you
What a great trip!

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

I hope "the pond" does not become too famous, because there's quite some newt 'lovers' out there. I even received a request to buy macedonicus based on my 2004 pictures once from ... Japan.

[Alexandre Roux]

I love the Natrix tessellata looking around !
But you said you've seen Vipera ammodytes? What about? I really love this snake and I want to see your pictures of them

Nice Testudo boettgeri (I think so?) !

[Julius Zidorn]

@ Jeroen: Wow, this is really crazy....
No worries, I wouldn´t give this spot to others!
@ Alexandre: I´ve seen only 1 individual and I have no really good picture of it.
I don´t have the pictures of the last two days yet. I´ll post them soon together with some great Rana dalmatina - shots.
But the VAMMO is not so good ...
I don´t know that Testudo boettgeri has now the status of a species, if not, it´s for sure Testudo hermanni boettgeri

Here´s the final list of found

Triturus macedonicus ~ 20
Bombina variegata scabra 25-30
Bufo viridis 1
Rana graeca 1
Rana dalmatina 3
Pelobates syriacus 5
Pelophylax kurtmuelleri many

Podarcis muralis many
Podarcs erhardii many
Podarcis tauricus ~ 30
Lacerta viridis some
Lacerta trilineata ~ 20
Algyroides nigropunctatus ~ 40
Ablepharus kitaibelii 12
Emys orbicularis 4
Testudo hermanni 5 (+2DOR +3 Carapax)
Dolichohis caspius 1
Natrix natrix 4
Natrix tessellata ~ 60 (+1DOR)
Vipera ammoytes 1

Anguis graeca 1 DOR
Zamenis longissimus 1 DOR



Regards,
Julius

[Alexandre Roux]

I don´t know that Testudo boettgeri has now the status of a species, if not, it´s for sure Testudo hermanni boettgeri

I've been ecovolunteer at Le Village des Tortues (SOPTOM) in Gonfaron (Var, France) with the tortoise specialist Bernard DEVAUX and I asked him about that. He told me that it was a species but it's not really transcribed everywhere.

This is a book by Holger Vetter talking about these species as 2 different ones !
The name is "Boettger's and Dalmatian Tortoises (Testudo boettgeri, hercegovinensis and hermanni)". I have it at home.

[Julius Zidorn]

Good to know that!
Thank you.
I think I saw Testudo boettgeri !

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

I don´t know that Testudo boettgeri has now the status of a species, if not, it´s for sure Testudo hermanni boettgeri

I've been ecovolunteer at Le Village des Tortues (SOPTOM) in Gonfaron (Var, France) with the tortoise specialist Bernard DEVAUX and I asked him about that. He told me that it was a species but it's not really transcribed everywhere.

This is a book by Holger Vetter talking about these species as 2 different ones !
The name is "Boettger's and Dalmatian Tortoises (Testudo boettgeri, hercegovinensis and hermanni)". I have it at home.

Obviously, I disagree. I'll dig up the relevant paper by Fritz et al. soon.

[Alexandre Roux]

I didn't really try to know more about that so I'm curious to see. I asked Bernard DEVAUX and he told me there are no publication except this book. Obviously, he's still sure that T.boettgeri is a different species.
When I will have seen this publication (Fritz et al.), I won't miss to share with him. Because he seems to be very busy and he didn't gave me any clue as well as I expected. Maybe it could be a good occasion for him to update himself.