Central France (2012)

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

If I find time I will try my luck at the next one Day trip in the Bernese Alps.

Please contact me if you will come, I will have pleasure to go with you ;o)

[Andre Schmid]

Nice Asp-Viper, I hope I can also find a few of this nice guys this year

Congrats to this nice finds !

[Guillaume Gomard]

Update (01.04.12: 20°C, wind: 20km/h)

H.viridiflavus are also out now . I observed 4 specimens in 3 hours but no vipers (same spot as last time).

Guillaume

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Update (01.04.12: 20°C, wind: 20km/h)

H.viridiflavus are also out now . I observed 4 specimens in 3 hours but no vipers (same spot as last time).

If the predator is outside, the prey keep under the ground ;o)

[Guillaume Gomard]

If the predator is outside, the prey keep under the ground ;o)

Well, I remember that last year, 2 asp vipers were basking at 1 meter from a large H.viridiflavus and more generally, it's not rare to find simultaneously Western whip snakes and V.aspis sharing this spot at the same time. However, I never managed to observe an attack.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

maybe ? Many people said that Hierophis is a predator for Vipera . I never seen that

[Guillaume Gomard]

maybe ? Many people said that Hierophis is a predator for Vipera . I never seen that

Even if I never observed that, I definitely think that this is true according to what people told me. That is why it can be deleterious to introduce viridiflavus close to a small and localized population of asp vipers, it seems that it can really destroy it.

[Guillaume Gomard]

Some new pics of the herpetofauna from Central France and from the France-Swiss border taken with my friend P.Wolf during this week-end. It was very muggy in the first day and we could observe 3 sub-adult H.viridiflavus in a rocky area (around 6 p.m). The second day, we decided to move to the Swiss border for a different kind of herping session which turned out to be quite successful: Within 3 hours (10 a.m to 1 p.m), we observed 5 H.viridiflavus, several (>5) N.maura and even more as you can see below. The weather was quite good in the morning (sunny, T=20°C) but the wind started to blow in the afternoon and we did not see any snake after 1 p.m.

(1) Central France

Close-up on the scales of its big belly:

H.viridiflavus on the move:

(2) Swiss border

Guillaume

[Stéphane Aubry]

Well done, beautiful pics

[Daniel Kane]

Yes, some really nice photos and observations there, well done!