Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Croatia, BiH, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece including ALL islands

Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Rob Andriessen » Sun May 08, 2016 9:57 pm

My friend Maykel wrote a nice report of our small trip to the Paklenica national park and surroundings in Croatia, which we visited 5-8 April this year.

The link is:

http://maykelfieldreports.blogspot.nl/2 ... april.html
Rob Andriessen
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:49 pm
Hometown: Wageningen
country: Netherlands

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Mario Schweiger » Mon May 09, 2016 6:47 am

nice report and good pictures of a lot of species.
But:
the "Balkan wall lizard (Podarcis tauricus) in a tree. Common in the lowlands." is a P. siculus.
the "subadult Green lizard (Lacerta viridis)" is a L. trilineata. You can see the median dorsal stripe.

The forest with all these Cyclama blooming looks great
Mario (Admin)

Please visit also my personal Herp-site vipersgarden.at
User avatar
Mario Schweiger
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2230
Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 7:57 pm
Location: Obertrum, Salzburg, Austria
Hometown: Obertrum
country: Austria

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Mon May 09, 2016 1:30 pm

Lovely!
And of course Mario's right, no tauricus in Croatia.
Jeroen Speybroeck
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:18 am
Hometown: Merelbeke
country: Belgium

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Mon May 09, 2016 3:56 pm

Up along the road we encountred these structures. They are open air graves.

No, they are not graves.
http://www.zadar.hr/mirila/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirilo
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Rob Andriessen » Mon May 09, 2016 9:24 pm

No, they are not graves.


Let's agree on graves for the soul then...


Thanks for the corrections, we'll fix it. Too bad our species count goes down with one though.
Rob Andriessen
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:49 pm
Hometown: Wageningen
country: Netherlands

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Tue May 10, 2016 9:18 pm

Let's agree on graves for the soul then...

Not even that, the sloppy Internet texts notwithstanding. In those centuries, even in that remote places of
the Balkans, the people were Christians (well, yes, up to a point, granted...) They SHOULD HAVE believed
that at the moment of death the soul leaves the body and flies - to wherever it flies... At a "mirilo" only
the dead body of a person was being "measured", for the last time, before being interred. If they believed
in anything more than that, that was pure heresy, of course... (In my opinion, they did, but that's "off the
record"...)
But, anyhow, you really had a much more successful trip than I had expected, given the time & place. Very
glad about that. And how did you like the local biologist, Gordan Lukač?
The plateau was Veliko Rujno? (No secret, don't be afraid to answer.)
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Rob Andriessen » Wed May 11, 2016 8:07 pm

It was indeed on the Veliko Rujno plateau, great place especially when it's too hot to herp at sea level. Gordan Lukac was very helpful, he directed us to Veliko Rujno and other great places, and made clear that looking for Ursini in the park wouldn't work without a 4x4 or a multi-day hiking trip.

We were quite happy with the overall score, though we missed some rather easy species as Natrix tesselata (maybe to early?) and though we heard Malpolon insignitus is quite rare in the park we thought we'd have a good change at dumpsites outside the park. Anyway we'll have to get back someday to look for bears and Ursinis, and to finally make a picture of Elaphe quatuorlineata
Rob Andriessen
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:49 pm
Hometown: Wageningen
country: Netherlands

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Peter Oefinger » Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 pm

Congrats, very nice findings.
And yes: finding quatuorlineata was also challenging for me - although everyone told me it would be quite easy...
Peter Oefinger
 
Posts: 970
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:28 am
Hometown: Duesseldorf
country: Germany

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Thu May 12, 2016 9:58 pm

Rob Andriessen wrote:We were quite happy with the overall score, though we missed some rather easy species
as Natrix tesselata (maybe to early?)...

But Natrix tessellata has never been observed within the NP Paklenica, so you couldn't
have MISSED it, at least not THERE. Or you rather referred to the whole fieldtrip?
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Trip report Paklenica national park, Croatia

Postby Rob Andriessen » Sat May 14, 2016 9:45 pm

But Natrix tessellata has never been observed within the NP Paklenica, so you couldn't
have MISSED it


yes, but we visited several streams and ponds close to the park which looked like suitable Tesselata habitats, and from earlier vacations to Croatia I remember the huge numbers of dice snakes in virtually every stream
Rob Andriessen
 
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:49 pm
Hometown: Wageningen
country: Netherlands

Next

Return to Balkan peninsula

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests