by Ilian Velikov » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:59 pm
Thank you all for confirming my suspicions about these photos.
Vipers entering the water is not a surprise as they do that probably more often then we think. I've seen photos and I've heard of sightings of swimming vipers on multiple occasions. I thought they might be doing this to cool down in countries where summer is very hot e.g. Bulgaria where ammodytes have been seen swimming althought this doesn't explain the affinity of berus to water in cooler regions...However, I wasn't sure about diving and I've definitely haven't heard about hunting or feeding in the water.
Matthieu, your experience confirms that they do actually dive.
Will, I have the book you are talking about but all those froglets seem to have been caught on land, or at least they've been eaten on land for sure...
Maarten, very good documentation indeed! This one does really look like it's foraging in the water. Very interesting! So it's possible that juveniles do hunt for small aquatic prey in the water. However, I think it's very unlikely that they feed underwater...even Natrix consume their prey on land.
It would be interesting to see/hear of more cases related to this!