I had the opportunity to visit this year the herpetological interesting region of Kars in the northeastern part of Türkiye, close to the armenian border. The main targets were the two occuring species of Montivipera (wagneri and raddei).
We were a team of 3 and we flew from Berlin to the airport of Kars Harakini via Istanbul. We arrived at the airport in the early noon.
- Airport of Kars
On arrival we had some conversational problems with the rental car company (no one speaks english and they were not able to read the printed documents of the online broker...anyway). After we solved this, we headed up to Kagizman which is a comparable larger town south of Kars.
Our hotel was very nice (even if the toilet situation is a bit strange for a west european citizen)...but after 2-3 days we were cool with it
Anyway the city was a bit misty and beautiful by night
The next day we woke up early and drove to two sites west of Kagizman to start our search for Montivipera wagneri
Finding the vipers wasn´t easy but we got a lot of luck (in total we found 15 in 3 days)
- Female Montivipera wagneri
- Male Montivipera wagneri
- Female M. wagneri
- Male
- Female with unusual color
- Male
We also searched different other places for reptiles, but we didn´t found too much (maybe due to the volatile weather conditions durcing our stay)
- Typical scenery...cattles (or sheep, horses or donkeys as well as dogs and shepherds) on the roads
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- Bad road conditions sometimes let your cortisol level rise up (regarding a non-SUV car, as theese are the only cars which are available at the airport)
- Heating material (dried cattle dung)...each house has at least one stack of these briquettes in their backyard)
- Cute inhabitants
- Heartwarming hospitable persons which invite you for tea and perfect selfmade cheese and bread
- Eirenis modestus
- Eirenis modestus
- Eirenis punctolienatus
- Platyceps najadum najadum
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- Arctia villica (Cream-spot - tiger - moth)
Further east (close to the armenian border) we also searched some sites for Montivipera raddei. These areas were a bit more challanging than the areas visited before.
- Habitat of Montivipera raddei, Kagizman area
- Habitat of Montivipera raddei,
- Paralaudakia caucasia
- Paralaudakia caucasia
- Ophisops elegans elegans
- Habitat of Montivipera raddei, Digor area
- Habitat of Montivipera raddei, Digor area
- Darevskia nairensis
- Darevskia nairensis
- Montivipera raddei raddei, male
- Montivipera raddei raddei male
Even if the time was short (only one week which is definitely to much for an area linke this) we had a lot of fun and will be back next spring.
Many thanks go to Bobby Bok and Clemens Radspieler for tips and fruitful discussions.
