Cyprus April / May 2022

[Christoph Andrijczuk]

Hey Guys,

this year me and my wife made (the third year in a row) herping vacation in Cyprus...okay, not only herping (it was more a prework for a forthcoming scientific project in the next years with Macrovipera lebetinus, to find good locations). The last three years we visited Cyprus on several occasions to find out the best time for vipers (and the worst time). We can assume that the ideal time doesn´t exist (it´s a bit comparable to Morocco...one year you can find a lot of individuals of one species, the other year you might see almost nothing at the same spots, the same time and the same hours). The best chance to see a Macrovipera at daytime is (of course) definitely in April / May, and in my own opinion the last week of April is the most "productive" one. Anyway a friend of mine (who was also several times on Cyprus for scientific stuff) told me, that he had an April with no findings the whole month long but then appears a peak in May.
Anyway, we started our vacation this year (last week of April and first week of May) with an unpleasant stay in a hotel in Aachen, Germany before we headed to Frankfurt airport for takeoff.

Fungus as the first vegetative organism of our trip

At arrival in the middle of the night at Larnaca airport we headed first to a supermarket and bought some food for a late (or early) dinner. Fortunately in Cyprus a lot of local stores are open everytime (even if Google says that they´re closed).
We drove to our destination in the Paphos district.
The next day we started at a place northeast to Paphos (close to Androlikou) which I accidentally identified as a potential habitat in 2021. We found three Macroviperas in around one hour, one of them a youngster from last year.

Cyprus is definitely a place for lizard hunters as you can find a lot of individuals nearly every meter you walk, irrespective of the time of the "active" year (except harduns which are predominant in the hottest months from May to September)!

Acanthodactylus schreiberi

Ophisops elegans schlueteri ... almost everywhere!

Troodos wall lizard (Phoenicolacerta troodica), endemic...really everywhere!

Bridled Mabuya (Heremitis vittatus)...common but hard to take a photo

Ablepharus budaki...everywhere with a little bit of wet ground and leaf cover

Phoenicolacerta troodica

Chameleo chamaeleon recticrista...found crossing a street between Skoulli and Paphos

While searching with flashlights during the evening or flipping stones in the Paphos district during the day, geckos where frequently found everywhere in the Paphos district.

Mediodactylus kotschyi fitzingeri

Hemidactylus turcicus

Mediodactylus kotschyi fitzingeri

Mediodactylus kotschyi fitzingeri ... in a toilet window frame

Perfect night preparation...Mediodactylus (in the lower window frame) and Laudakia (on top of the window) prior to dusk in an abandoned toilet house

We visited a lot of reptile habitats in the sorroundings of Paphos and enjoyed a beautiful flowery scenery with "comfortable" temperatures (only 24-30°C...compared to 40-48°C in late August which we suffered in 2020)

Evretou Dam...habitat of Macrovipera, Malpolon, Dolichophis

Cedar valley

Paphos forest

Habitat near Pano Akourdaleia

Viper habitat Argaka

Wild fire during night searching...we left then "earlier" this evening

We also had the chance to take a look at some other, more sightseeing - like places

Northern coast near Akamas peninsular

Dragon Cave, Pomos

Paralimni lake

Aphrodites rock...what you see on front page of every travellers guide or postcords

Nea Paphos archeological site

The ideal stuff in the afternoon...a traditionally made strong Cyprus coffee

Besides lizards many intersting animals were found (especially birding people will find their paradise)

Aegaeobuthus cyprius

Flamingos

Pelophylax cypriensis ... frequently found along small ponds and rivers

Libelloides macaronius

Papilio machaon syriacus

Mauremys rivulata...I was very happy to find one of these rare animals (in Cyprus in danger of extinction) in a so far unknown location in the Paphos area

Chaetopelma olivaceum

Signs of snakes were seen almost everywhere in the area...very common as DOR´s. It seems that the island is completely filled up with snakes and indeed there are a lot...but it strongly depends and from previous trips I know that Cyprus can really be a pain in the ass when it comes to snakesearching . This year we were lucky with a lot of vipers (usually one per day) and everyday Dolichophis jugularis (which were to fast and usually to far away to get a good photo).

Dolichophis shedding in our garden

DOR Dolichophis jugularis

Macrovipera lebetinus lebetinus

[Christoph Andrijczuk]

Telescopus fallax cyprianus, Skoulli

DOR Malpolon insignitus

Juvenile Macrovipera lebetinus lebetinus, Androlikou

Telescopus fallax cyprianus, Simou

Large Macrovipera, Simou

Large Macrovipera in Orange tree plantation, Goudi

Large Macrovipera, Androlikou

Middle sized Macrovipera, Kanaviou

"Typical" viper habitat

Kanaviou

You might also checkout our short videoclip which shows habitats from "above":
https://vimeo.com/738621342

All in all we had a really nice stay and we will return as soon as possible. Thanks for your reading

[Pablo Deschepper]

Thanks for sharing your report Christoph! Looks like you found some chunky lebetinus. Do you have any experience with herping on the island late september/october? From what I hear, it should be good to find lebetinus because they are preying on migrating birds that are attracted by the small bodies of water that have not dried up here and there.

Cheers,
Pablo

[Christoph Andrijczuk]

Hey Pablo,

yes indeed Ive been there two times in september and october...what I can state is that it seems to be very temperature dependent. But it´s not like that they´re easy to find this time of the year. I found two vipers last year during two weeks during the night (one on the street and the other crawling next to an reed belt of a small river). But these months were still very hot and dry and these two vipers took us hours and hours of fieldwork. In 2020 it was a bit better, but also most activity during the night. The clue in these snakes is, that you always got a real chance to find them whenever you go out...but this chance is not always high. You can for example go out 8 hours a day and night and you might find absolutely nothing over 4 weeks (what happened to a good friend of mine) and then there will be a day were you find 3 vipers in 30 minutes. But all in all the odds of ratio is definetely greater in spring.
During autumn you should take into account that a lot of water sources will be nearly completely dried up (but there are some habitats which should still have some water, especially the greater dams like Evretou or Germasogeia).
But the search should not be restricted to water bodies.
My friend Daniel did a field survey on lebetinus few years ago and he could not proof the hypothesis that they are always close to water bodies (see also Jestrzemski, Daniel & Kuzyakova, Irina (2018): Morphometric characteristics and seasonal proximity to water of the Cypriot blunt-nosed viper Macrovipera lebetina lebetina (Linnaeus, 1758). Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases. 24.).
So there will be a real chance to find a viper in autumn, yes. If the weather is hot, then you should also try to search at night (I found them also in summertime around 21-23 o´clock). They can climb up trees, but it´s not as common as this behaviour is seen in Macrovipera schweizeri. I´ve found most of the cyprus lebetinus on the ground.

[Tomas Klacek]

Very nice report, thanks for sharing! Impressive amount of viper, nice to read here something fresh

[Kristian Munkholm]

Nice report, thanks!

rum these days (I'm among those guilty of not submitting nay longer )

I was on Cyprus with a friend for three days at the end of March this year, also with vipers as the main goal. We found plenty of herps, even plenty of snakes, but struggled with the vipers . The first two days in the Paphos district we found no trace - not a live one, not a dead one, not a shed. Finally, in the afternoon of our third and last day we found a couple further west

Btw, in regards to time of year, while we were there , we met Snake George for dinner, and he said he considered September the best time of year for vipers.

A few of the trip's snakes:

[Pablo Deschepper]

Hey Pablo,

yes indeed Ive been there two times in september and october...what I can state is that it seems to be very temperature dependent. But it´s not like that they´re easy to find this time of the year. I found two vipers last year during two weeks during the night (one on the street and the other crawling next to an reed belt of a small river). But these months were still very hot and dry and these two vipers took us hours and hours of fieldwork. In 2020 it was a bit better, but also most activity during the night. The clue in these snakes is, that you always got a real chance to find them whenever you go out...but this chance is not always high. You can for example go out 8 hours a day and night and you might find absolutely nothing over 4 weeks (what happened to a good friend of mine) and then there will be a day were you find 3 vipers in 30 minutes. But all in all the odds of ratio is definetely greater in spring.
During autumn you should take into account that a lot of water sources will be nearly completely dried up (but there are some habitats which should still have some water, especially the greater dams like Evretou or Germasogeia).
But the search should not be restricted to water bodies.
My friend Daniel did a field survey on lebetinus few years ago and he could not proof the hypothesis that they are always close to water bodies (see also Jestrzemski, Daniel & Kuzyakova, Irina (2018): Morphometric characteristics and seasonal proximity to water of the Cypriot blunt-nosed viper Macrovipera lebetina lebetina (Linnaeus, 1758). Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases. 24.).
So there will be a real chance to find a viper in autumn, yes. If the weather is hot, then you should also try to search at night (I found them also in summertime around 21-23 o´clock). They can climb up trees, but it´s not as common as this behaviour is seen in Macrovipera schweizeri. I´ve found most of the cyprus lebetinus on the ground.

Thanks for your reply Christoph! I am planning to go herping on Cyprus the first week of october (Paphos district) and hope to see vipers and hopefully get a taste of the other herpetofauna.

Cheers,
Pablo