Some pictures from the Cres-Lošinj archipelago

[Thomas Bader]

Bero, sorry for my late reply. I just don't look that often...

But if you have some arguments regarding
Testudo hermanni and its being "threatened", please feel free to do.
As for Coronella austriaca, it's obviously rare (found three times up to now), but does it also mean "threatened"?

Well, we had a very intensive week on Cres, which is quite a long time ago but the impressions are still in my mind. Abot 20 Austrians (guided by F. Tiedemann, with Riegler, Hill, Keymar, Bader etc) together with some Italians with M. Delfino, Edo Razzetti, N. Bressi...

In total we found 2 Testudos within a week in different habitats which is not a lot. And one of the main problems for this species (in my opinion) are the stone walls all over the island, which seperate the different meadows - mostly an insuperable barrier for tortoises - and even if they manage to cross one wall, there is the next one right in front of them - like a labyrinth. So it is like a compilation of many cages in the landscape, hindering the tortoises finding a partner. Good to see, that there are some areas, where reproduction is possible!

Coronella is rare for sure, but in the last few years it was found regularly on the island. Coronella has the ability to avoid stronger snakes and predators by using other/different daytime and weather - absolutely no concern about this species.

[Berislav Horvatic]

And one of the main problems for this species (in my opinion) are the stone walls all over the island, which seperate the
different meadows - mostly an insuperable barrier for tortoises - and even if they manage to cross one wall, there is the
next one right in front of them - like a labyrinth. So it is like a compilation of many cages in the landscape, hindering the
tortoises finding a partner.

An interesting observation indeed, never occured to me...

But the dry-stone walls usually have passages, a sort of short and small tunnels at the base, meant for lambs at least,
which the land tortoises could use as well... I don't insist on that, just remembering the common practice on Krk...
But even without that, I would say that Cres is actually not so terribly much criss-crossed with dry-stone walls "all over
the island", there are quite a lot "more open & free-for-all" parts as well...

Coronella has the ability to avoid stronger snakes and predators by using other/different daytime and weather - absolutely
no concern about this species.

That was exactly my point, regarding your using the "too threatening" term "threatened". Quite generally, it's my
(laypersons!) impression that terms like "threatened" and "endangered" are much too often used much too lightly
for the species one cares of, and would like to protect them - somehow, anyhow - even by using (formally) too
strong qualifiers, just to deter the "enemies"...
In ethics that's called the "Royal Lie". ( According to the Greek philosopher Plato “[…] if anyone at all is to have
the privilege of lying the rulers of the State […] may be allowed to lie for the public good.”)
Well, notwithstanding Plato's suggestion, I still prefer the plain truth, whichever/whatever it might be. Then I'll
try to cope with that, if I can.

[Ruggero M.]

Some (bad) news from my last visit to those islands.
One of the first finding after my arrival was this female leopard snake in a well known place of Losinj island.

An "in situ" picture was impossible because the snake was crawling under my feet!

But after this good beginning I saw bad signs of something strange happening...

This place was a true paradise for snakes, before this "treatment"

Nearby...

What was happening on the island?

I met a german guy, very expert on the nature of the island, and he told me as follows...

[Ruggero M.]

This is his story:

- he saw the last Aesculapian snake in Losinj something as 14 years ago and then no more;
- some years ago he also saw (but I know very well that nobody of us can be 100% sure about this sighting!) a snake which he described as "totally new and only once seen" and the description was that of a P.najadum climbing "in a vertical way" over a stone wall of his house: the snake was described as very thin, long, fast moving, light "grey", and with the typical flecks on the side of the neck: he never saw anything like that before or after that sighting. P.najadum, as far as I know, was never described for this island.
- some years ago tree frogs were common around water pools of the island: now you can't find one;
- some years ago Testudo were common, and one of the last specimens of the surroundings of his house was eaten in a "soup" by an old woman called "Pina";
- many birds species are now rare or totally disappeared;
- anti parasitic tratments of sheeps contaminate water sources and create damages to amphibians and eco systems;
- wild boars (this is the most interesting part of the tale, and the only one I can confirm !!!) have been introduced on the islands by an italian-croatian hunting agreement and create every type of damage, eating reptile eggs, small animals and even fully grown animals. And I know that wild boars can make that, and I've personally seen what happens in that territory!

Here is what I've seen during one of my excursions (I thought at first it could be a buffalo or a huge sheep mutant, but it was actually a huge wild boar digging around a stone wall and moving stones from the ground!)

Huge wild boar in action

[Ruggero M.]

In an abandoned village of northern Cres I found a blackish grey Aeskulapian snake severly injured in the middle part of the body: it was almost cut in two parts, and I was so sad that I didn't want to take pictures. But then I thought that kind of injury could be determined by a wild boar bite!

Fortunately we saw also healthy specimens, as this young black female:

It was basking coiled at the edge of the road you can see on the background

THe problems on the island of Cres are unfortunately not limited to wild boards and pollution... Tourism, road traffic, motocross and quads are very big problems for snakes...

[Ruggero M.]

In the sun of the late afternoon this leopard snake was basking on a well known (and at times very well travelled!) dirty road of the island: a group of people in motocross have been passed on that road only one hour or so before my finding: a lucky snake not having met them!

In situ picture

Detail after capture: two small ticks were attached on one neck side

[Ruggero M.]

But, after that lucky finding, I met this beautiful yellowish baby on the big road, freshly and deadly hit by a car, and still moving in agony...

For this other one specimen, I arrived in time...

For this clearly too late...

For this other baby, I think road traffic could be unguilty: I think this baby was malformed from birth, and also the tail showed some abnormalties

[Massimo Trentin]

Sad to hear and see this from you...seems it will not take so long to destroy that paradise,hoping it's not a no way back

[Ruggero M.]

Thanks Massimo for your reply!

I will post now some other usual (and maybe boring) pictures of other snakes, which are still very common on those islands.

A couple of young Malpolon males, both in "blue shedding phase".
I hoped to see interactions between males and femlaes, but this year I could watch almost only males, some of which huge. I also probably spotted two black/melanistic specimens but they were too fast for pictures: for the biggest one, I can not 100% be sure about the species determination, but I think it was more probably a Malpolon (and not a melanistic longissimus) because of its speed and the impression I had of "rough scales" when I saw from near the tail disappearing in a stone wall.
The other one was a black snake (very fast disappearing inside a stone wall) in the island of Losinj: it was probably a black Malpolon, because I've not yet seen melanistic gemonensis, but I cannot be sure of this determination either.

Two rather small Malpolon males

[Ruggero M.]

This was a very common gemonensis, but it crawled over a tree when it saw me. And I find this behaviour interesting, even if I had already observed this behaviour at least twice in H.viridiflavus

Climbing gemonensis