DOR Malpolon ?

[Berislav Horvatic]

Malpolon ís territorial, Bero.
http://psammophis.nl/bronnen/originals/ ... er2006.pdf

Yes, it is territorial, thank you, but what was really meant here wasn't that - Frédéric actually wanted
to say "localized", meaning „keeping within a rather small home range“. It's a totally different concept.

[Berislav Horvatic]

It sure is rare, but even a slow guy like me succeeded at chasing and catching an adult Malpolon 3x
One of them was heavy with a big meal, though, and another worked itself into trouble by trying to
flee against a steep slope without hiding opportunity.

Well, on an open road, an able running human is actually faster than any snake, including a black mamba or a malpolon...

Of course, one could now discuss what "able" implies, but even a 60-years-old guy like me could overtake the fastest snake
of the world on open and flat ground, with no vegetation or similar obstacles. At least, that's what the measurements say.
That a black mamba could overtake a running horse is just a legend, not to be taken too seriously, so the serious books say...

Or, you have the luck that a malpolon runs away from you but takes cover under a stone or something, and
you have seen where it disappeared, and the beast has no way to escape further...

That covers/explains your feats? Our young colleague Boris Lauš has had dosens of "lucky encounters" like that,
but he's a very special guy indeed, has a "golden eye" and "golden hands", and a hell of luck... We all envy him.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Malpolon ís territorial, Bero.
http://psammophis.nl/bronnen/originals/ ... er2006.pdf

Yes, it is territorial, thank you, but what was really meant here wasn't that - Frédéric actually wanted
to say "localized", meaning „keeping within a rather small home range“. It's a totally different concept.

I"m not going to assume what Frédéric meant. I'd say territorial snakes are localised, so the result is the same.

That covers /explains your feats?

Sure + luck is practically involved at any time. I remembered still another one now, actually, which fits the scenario of fleeing into a "not so full-proof" hiding place, although it decided itself to abandon it again, at which point I could grab it. This not only Tiemannesque but 100% verified Tiemann picture commemorates that joyful moment.



P.S.: An adult male insignitus during the hot mid-day in Dadia Forest in July 2000 was actually one of the first snakes I ever caught. It was also the one that bit me, btw. It was so hot that even the Ophisops were only represented by a low number of juveniles being still active. After dark, I found my first tessellata (a baby) in a tiny stream. While I was admiring my first Bufotes viridis, a big Natrix natrix entered the scene and ate it. Sorry for drifting off - I guess/hope we all get a bit sentimental when remembering stuff from our beginner period

[Berislav Horvatic]

I"m not going to assume what Frédéric meant. I'd say territorial snakes are localised, so the result is the same.

No, it isn't. A "territory" is (by definition - hopefully widely accepted!) what an individual animal defends from its conspecifics,
and it can "travel" along with that individual, as it moves around, while a "home range" is something fixed in space (and usually
bigger than that.) So, an animal can, in principle, have a vast "home range", the territory it uses during its lifetime, while the
"territory" (the defended one) might be much smaller than that, and "movable", following the wanderings of the individual
within the "home range".
As far as I know, malpolon is a good example to illustrate the difference. It moves around (within its home range) a lot, but
defends only its immediate vicinity, its "territory", whichever/wherever it might happen to be at a particular moment of its
wanderings.
After all, let's have Frédéric have his say on which of the two he really meant... It's so simple.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

OK, but you make it sound a little bit as if they move around "randomly", scent marking all over the place (cf. your "whichever/wherever it might happen to be at a particular moment of its
wanderings"). If I'm not mistaken, that's not true - they (temporarily but still) stay in a chosen territory and maintain it. In the context of "if you have a Malpolon escape on you, it may be worth to come back a little later", I'd say territorial and localised come together in a sense.

[Berislav Horvatic]

You might be right, and I might have been "theorising" too much, with too much "in principle", I admit that...

... they (temporarily but still) stay in a chosen territory and maintain it.

I would rather say, they RETURN to that chosen territory, regularly. (When hunting around, they are great wanderers
indeed - no question about that, I hope.) And they probably really defend it only at the mating time, when it becomes
the most important thing in life...
I don't presume to be a specialist on that at all, so, if anyone knows more, let him/her have his/her say.

An aside: Malpolons do scent-mark "all over the place", but a "territory" as such, for any "territorial" animal, is not alwas
scent-marked, or marked in any way at all. It might just be a space around it, not marked by anything, which it chooses
to "defend". That's the "theoretical", the most general definition of the technical term "territory" (in biology, of course.)
If a particular species does more than that, I'd really like to know. Malpolon first. So, what precisely do they scent-mark?
All the time, or just when it becomes terribly important to them? And alike questions...

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

You might be right, and I might have been "theorising" too much, with too much "in principle", I admit that...

... they (temporarily but still) stay in a chosen territory and maintain it.

I would rather say, they RETURN to that chosen territory, regularly. (When hunting around, they are great wanderers
indeed - no question about that, I hope.) And they probably really defend it only at the mating time, when it becomes
the most important thing in life...

I think I remember a recent paper showing exactly that for viridiflavus, so it makes sense to me.

Malpolons do scent-mark "all over the place"

Is that published material?

what precisely do they scent-mark?

Isn't that in any of the related papers? Probably not too easy to investigate.

[Berislav Horvatic]

Malpolons do scent-mark "all over the place"

Is that published material?

That's just what you wrote, and I quoted...

[Robin Duborget]

Mamamia, too much informations, I only wanted tips for finding a Malpolon

To get back to the subject, thanks guys for the method, but in addition what is the best conditions/biotope/hour for finding a Malpolon ?
Sorry for these questions, but it is the first time I will actively look for a snake (found the others only by chance ...).

Gloves ?! I have not thought about that ! I conclude that it will try to bite me ...

[Matthijs Hollanders]

Can we have a habitat picture? As silly as this sounds it might help us give you advice on how to look for them. I only have a little bit of experience from Spain.



For what it's worth, Tim Leerschool found this one halfway done shedding and he heard it coming long before he saw the snake... snakes of this size make a lot of noise when they move about.