If you search in Google Images "Malpolon + Zoroaster" you will find some pictures of mine...
https://www.google.it/search?q=zoroaste ... 80&bih=888The pictures signed "Zoroaster" belong to me.
"Zoroaster" was the nickname I used in an italian Forum, I've abandoned time ago, because I did not agree the rules used on that Forum (pictures of "handled snakes", especially of mine, were sistematically deleted).
I've a good experience with this beautiful species, because I've kept them for some years in the terrarium and because I've found many specimens, in Italy (Liguria), France, Spain (only one small specimen!), Croatia (Cres-Losinj) and Greece.
The only snake which tried to bite me without provocation was the H. viridiflavus in 1-2 occasions (this should be interesting for Jeroen!).
On my experience, Malpolon does not bite you every time you grab it or handle it: H.viridiflavus, on the contrary, bites nastly and enduring 95-99% of the times.
I don't use gloves, and the pictures of the male handled with gloves were taken by myself while a friend of mine was holding the snake with the help of gloves.
The snake was my first Malpolon seen and captured, and it was found near Savona, in a small, old "garbage dump": that habitat is now totally destroyed and does not exist any longer...
In that habitat we found also eggs.
Some eggs were incubated in my home, and all the babies hatched successfully in my home-made incubator (you can see the picture of a baby Malpolon freshly hatched from its egg!).
My specimens marked themselves in the terrarium, and also the walls of the terrarium.
I could see the pair mating, but I had no success in incubating the following eggs of the brother and sister hatched from the "wild" eggs.
Once we were called near Savona to remove a "batch" of small snakes... We found a bucket literally full of freshly hatched Malpolon, collected with a shovel: some were already injured... Anyway it was easy for us to recognize every female and every male. Most snakes were released in a proper environment: few were kept for the terrarium...
P.S. Wonderful and "tame" bluish male taken by my friend Melo in Losinj: it was very easy to catch, because it was late afternoon and the snake was almost asleep at the edge of the road.
More usually coloured male taken by myself after a rather long "chase" in the garriga of Cres: this one was not easy to catch!