Early spring in Croatia

[Mario Riedling]

Hello out there!

I just came back from Croatia. Earlier this year I kicked of a small discussion about my decission to go in the beginning of April. (fieldherping.eu/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2379&p=23615#p23615)

So I spent 8 days travelling from Zadar down to Dubrovnik. So I had the chance to see as many different habitats as possible and to hopefully escape bad weather. I travelled to possible habitats (as I had no places from others) from 0 to 700m asl. Temperatures ranged from 9°C to 28°C. Only two half days with inappropriate weather stopped me from herping all day.

I had quite some nice results I never expected!
Unfortunatelly I found no V. ammodytes.

Most lizards (espacially all green species) were quite abundant.
P. siculus


L. trilineata


P. melisellensis


A. nigropunctatus


D. oxycephala


I also found 10+ Pseudopus apodus.


T. hermanni


M. rivulata (damn alert monsters!)


One of the species I didn't expect: Z. situla
I found 3 (one DOR)


N. tessellata


N. natrix vs. P. ridibundus


The other species I didn't expect: Platyces najadum (at 18°C after many hours of heavy rain)


Just one thing I don't know what to think about.
I found those tracks/ digging sites:


What kind of animal digs in this stony ground? In live you could also recognize something like paws that caused that structures. It was in NP Biokovo - so maybe bears?
I also found some scat:


You can find much morge pictures on flickr including lots of habitat shots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60302003@ ... 691178544/

Or on my homepage including a trip report in german and some youtube videos:
http://www.ambystomatidae.de/kroatien-i ... -2016.html

Cheers!

[Berislav Horvatic]

Mario,
you certainly had a lot of luck (so early in the year), but were extremely diligent as well.
Also prudent in your estimates and decissions. So you've certainly fully deserved all your
successes.
Thanks for the magnificent (and timely) report, and do come again.

> Wie kommen diese ganzen Grünfrösche eigentlich in jedes Wasserloch,
> selbst wenn rund um ihren Lebensraum nichts als dürres Land ist?

Sie RIECHEN Wasser – aus einer Entfernung von 2 – 3 km. Unterwegs sind
sie dann eben bei Nacht, genauso wie die Krokodile. Von einem Tuempel
bis zu den naechsten, und danach weiter... So geht's normalerweise.

> Dieses Tier war riesig, sicherlich etwa einen Meter lang.

Fuer eine Scheltopusik ist das ueberhaupt nicht RIESIG. Anderthalb Meter waere riesig.

Regarding no V. ammodytes, I've warned you in advance. Lazy creatures, and
in a climate like that, they CAN AFFORD IT. We've been through that quite a
few times.

[Berislav Horvatic]

What kind of animal digs in this stony ground? In live you could also recognize something like paws that caused that structures.
It was in NP Biokovo - so maybe bears?

Either bears or pigs, but if you could recognize "something like paws", then probably bears. What bears do, and pigs don't, is overturning stones, in search of what's edible beneath them. Really big stones, believe me. Bears
are powerful creatures.
Once on the mt. Velebit at some 1600 m a.s.l. (in search of V. ursinii - what else...) I happened to see a grassy slope scattered with big stones, all of them flipped... Well, I didn't feel quite relaxed there...

I also found some scat:

Doesn't look like a bear scat to me (and I've seen quite a few of them), but I'm not an expert.
Bear scat normally looks like this, revealing the predominantly vegetarian diet, "by the book":

Fresh scat, revealing that the poor guy had nothing better to eat than Cornus mas. (Yes, it was a terrible season indeed when it comes to collecting any fruit and berries, both for people and bears - Cornus mas was sadly the only thing available for both species - and in meagre quantities at that):

Summer 2014, a lone house some 600 meters above Senj, in the middle of nowhere... Bero in his pyjamas,
brutally thrown out from his bed because a young bear chose to visit us... searching for food or company
or both... (Estimate by an expert local hunter: 3 - 4 years old, separated from its mother, on his/her own,
but stil young enough to be curious and adventurous enough...)

Well, young or not, craving for food or just company or both, it was quite formidable, at least to me. In any case, no little cub to trifle with...

[Peter Oefinger]

Very nice findings, in particular the Zamenis...

[Bobby Bok]

Great finds and pictures Mario!

The digging hints me in the direction of a wild boar while the faeces look a lot like that from a cow. Certain breeds of cow (eg. highland cattle) produces droppings like this.

[Mario Riedling]

Hey Bero,

thanks for your kind words and the clarification about Pelophylax!
I will come again for sure!
It was quite some work to find all those species. But just like the last times, it was helpful to be alone AND motivated like hell

Thanks for you impressions about bears too. Intersting to see both scat and what you already went through Must be a magnificant encounter!

@Peter: Thanks!

@Bobby: Thank you too. As I've never been to a area where both boars and bears live and where the soil is like that, I just wondered if boars were capable to dig like that.
So yes, maybe both the scat and digging traces don't really fit to each other what lead me in the wrong direction!

Regards,
Mario

[Thomas Reich]

Nice result, especially the 2 living Leopard snakes. I still have not seen this species myself. It's a mystery...

[Rob Andriessen]

Cool trip! And nice photos. I visited Paklenica national park last week for a few days together with a friend, he's working on a report. We didn't see N. tesselata and P. najadum though (but we did found some Ammodytes). Great country! Gotta go back for some bears one day...

[Berislav Horvatic]

Thanks for you impressions about bears too. Interesting to see both scat and what you already went through Must be a magnificant encounter!

All my encounters with bears there were quite exciting, but what troubles me more is that THERE it's easier to meet a bear than a snake or a lizard. A cursed piece of Earth, it seems, regarding herpetofauna. Herbert Billing himself is my witness - he was our guest there for three days, the habitat is non plus ultra, but where are the herps...?! He had no clue, either. In three days he managed to find just a single V. ammodytes, in a habitat he estimated as ideal for them...

@Bobby: Thank you too. As I've never been to a area where both boars and bears live and where the soil is like that, I just wondered if boars were capable to dig like that.
So yes, maybe both the scat and digging traces don't really fit to each other what lead me in the wrong direction!

I think Bobby is right. Pigs can wreak quite an impressive havoc indeed, but they dont flip large stones in search
of what's beneath them. That's what bears do. And bears dont shit like cows, that's for sure.

[Berislav Horvatic]

Nice result, especially the 2 living Leopard snakes. I still have not seen this species myself. It's a mystery...

Neither have I (except DOR or in someone's terrarium). And I live in Croatia, not in Switzerland, so let's say,
"in the nearest neighbourhood"... Bad luck. Shit does happen (to some really deserving people), but that's
rather a subject for theology/philosophy. If you read the Bible really attentively, you'll find out that the
world is actually still being ruled by Satan, not by (the good?!) g/God Jahve... (That was the bet between
the two of them, and Jahve accepted it - "OK, you have a try for the next few thousand years, then we'll
see...")
The bet should eventually end with the battle at Harmagedon, when J. C. comes with his army (?!) and
defeats the "dark side of the Force". (Confer John's Apocalypsis.) After that - but only after a further
"suspension" of another 1000 years - Jahve will finally prevail... Then you and I will finally find a Zamenis
situla alive, in nature.
Have a better idea/explanation?
But what should we do about our admin Mario? He parks his car and after a few steps he encounters a
Zamenis situla - just like that! (He showed me the exact place, but nothing that time... of course not.)
Mario, who do you really belong to?