Short trip to SE Spain

[miguel santos]

Here is a report of a short trip with a lot of emphasis on the Podarcis family in Spain. I grew up in Portugal with Podarcis virescens ( P. hispanicus in those days ) crawling up even into my sleeping room, in the last few years I became more and more interested in that little lizard that somehow looked diferent in different areas of Portugal and Spain. With the development of DNA research and the publication in 2011 of Kalintzopoulou ’s study of genetic lineages I decided to see for myself how those species or subspecies looked like. Specially the newly discovered lineages : P. hispanicus Albacete-Murcia and the P. vaucheri South Central Spain.
I was in Portugal during the first 2 weeks of October and I planned a 4 days trip to the area of the Sierras de Cazorla Y Segura. I had never been there before and there was a lot to discover. I took a map and a list of B&B in the area and decided on the spot where to go next.
The trip developed as such :
Day 1 - Lisbon to Riopar. 11 hours on the road with a few stops arround Linares ( and before to rest )
Day 2 - Area of Molinicos, Riopar and crossed the Sierras towards Baza
Day 3 - Crossed the Sierra de Baza ( cloudy ), La Calahorra and Alcalá la Real
Day 4 - Jaén ( visited a few parks in the morning ) and left at 12:30 for a 8 hour drive back to Lisbon
I had a few challenges to deal with: The mornings were rather chill 8/9 degrees with few activity before 11:00; At the Nacimiento del Rio Mundo and a few other places the sun was quite low and few rocks were exposed to the sun; I wanted to drive with daylight because I was alone and the distances were long.
I am quite pleased with what I saw, the area is very beautyfull, I took a few good pictures and I saw some new species/subspecies for me.
The pictures I present start with a compilation of P. virescens from several populations I saw in Spain. I then move to the P. hispanicus Albacete-Murcia, P. hispanicus “sensu stricto”, P. hispanicus galera, P. vaucheri South Central Spain, later I’ll place later some pictures from a few other species seen during this 4 days. All pictures are in situ except the very last one of the "non" Podarcis series.
I will probably go back one day the the Riopar area, as Gabriel mentioned on a diferent post, it is worth a ( longer ) visit.
Please give me all the feadback you have, I am only now starting to explore that area.
I hope you enjoy it, Miguel

[miguel santos]

I ended up having the pictures ready, therefore here are the Non Podarcis pictures

[Berislav Horvatic]

And not a single snake, if only just to satisfy/silence us, the wretched, perverse minority (?)...?!

[miguel santos]

Dear Berislav,
I was also surprised that I only saw one skin shed of a Horseshoe snake in La Calahorra. But there was plenty food arround.
I also saw 2 short-toed snake eagles. they were out and about but I did not invest much time on searching.
Maybe I can post two pics from Portugal, not from these 4 days.

[Berislav Horvatic]

Maybe I can post two pics from Portugal, not from these 4 days.

Never mind the trouble, since we - the true snake-lovers - are actually not so "talibanic" as some of the
"animals-with-legs-lovers" might suspect of us... On the contrary, we're quite decent, unobtrusive, mild,
gentle, full of understanding... (for all those who can not find a snake, damn them!)
(May I repeatedly stress that I intentionally refrain from using "smilies" to make clear what's meant as a
joke, and what not. Thank you.)

[miguel santos]

You are right, We don't need smilies to emphasize sentences or phrases. I like to see all kinds of animals and photograph them. Any way, snakes are for me those that stay the longest in my mind. I understand your passion for them.

[Peter Oefinger]

Hi Miguel,
amazing! We really did almost the same trip... But it was worth it.
Your report, my shots (and other like those from Thomas Reich) give a picture about the sitution in SE-Spain. And it turns out to be less complicated as it can be supposed by the DNA analyses: The existence of different mtDNA clades doesn't necessarily mean that the existing taxonomy by Geniez/Renoult etc. has to be changed - actually, I do not expect new (sub-)species to be described.

I like the shot from Nacimiento del Mundo - I didn't find these lizards there. I agree, they are the mtDNA clade called P. h. sensu stricto. But I think they are basically P. liolepis. We now know locations for this species from Albacete, Murcia, Jaen and Granada provinces.

[miguel santos]

Hi Peter,
I agree with you Peter, it was worth it even if I missed the adults from the Albacete-Murcia clade. What I found fascinationg was to see the diversity within 20km or a 30 minutes drive. Where is the border and what causes it? Climate is the major factor (I think) limiting the range of P. virescens and P. guadarramae in Western Iberia but I wonder if the same applies in the East. I saw P. virescens in Sierra de Segura at 1070 m, the P. hispanicus S.S. on the road next the the Parking plane at Nacimiento del Mundo was at 1090 m. But the landscape was very different. Pine trees and a dry soil where I saw The p. virescens and a humid valley in the Nacimiente del Mundo.
Maybe that explains why the P. hispanicus s.s. is present there.
Also the competition between well stablished populations limit the expansion of both clades like the P. virescens and the Albacete-Murcia to the East of Riopar? Interesthing stuff.
Also the P. hispanicus s.s. in La Calahorra is just above 1200m. Do they perfere cooler temperatures ?

[Peter Oefinger]

Don't care about Albacete Murcia type - it doesn't differ from Galera type...
About climate barriers, I agree:
The hispanicus sensu stricto clade in that area has a strong preference for humid forested mountain habitats. In contrast to this, the adjoining Galera type tolerates very dry habitats. P. virescens avoids very dry habitats which probably limits its expansion in SE Spain.

Btw: The hispanicus sensu stricto from Rio Mundo is not the same as the ones from Calahorra. Maybe you were confused by the different meanings of hispanicus sensu stricto at Geniez and Kaliontzopoulou...

[miguel santos]

Good that you mention it, as I was about to ask that same question....
I will get back to the literature to put my thoughts back in line.
Miguel