Holidays in Provence : V. ursinii and almost nothing else

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

... I like this kind of "zoo keepers"

[Berislav Horvatic]

But I now got that no one needs what I said. So I better stop.

I would rather presume that people didn't like THE WAY you said it.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Nothing beats 3 hours hiking upwards during rain to find just a single ursinii in shed after hours of searching.

Now THAT's something I should start a poll about .

Ha, Michael and his way of putting things... Micha, I still hope you would understand that it makes a lot of difference to put your personal views as personal views and not as general truth. I, for one, prefer to find a myriad of ursinii in a mellow spring sun

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

If one wants, you can put something bad and dark into everything I say, no matter how I say, isn't it?

Not really, no. Or why else would it always be you? It's soooo simple - just start your statements with "I think", "For me", ...


"FOR ME, nothing beats 3 hours hiking upwards during rain to find just a single ursinii in shed after hours of searching."
"THIS MAY SOUND HARSH BUT IN MY PERSONAL WAY OF EXPERIENCING THINGS, visiting this particular spot is not far away from visiting a zoo - particularly when the zoo keeper is guiding you."

Please stop pretending you are not smart enough to feel that this makes a difference. This stuff and my and other people's responses should stop spoiling this forum. Please....


Of course, you can disagree and do your hikes in the rain. Let others do their zoo tours.

[Bobby Bok]

BORING!!!! Can we go back to ursinii's, way more interesting to read then these pointless and seemingly endless discussions.... Everyone has had their say in this, let's move on!

[Berislav Horvatic]

Is it necessary to start every statement in this world with "I think", "Imho", "This may sound harsh, but IMHO..."?

Certainly not. One should not overdo it. The point is to find just the right proportion...

But, as Bobby suggested, back to the ursiniis...

I have some very bad news regarding the above-mentioned Croatian "ursinii zoo" which some of you
had the chance to visit. In the second half of July this year it was completely destroyed by a big fire
which devoured the meadows from the top of the mountain all the way down to the lowest edge of
the V. ursinii habitat. The fire lasted for 10 days and spread along the whole mountain range in a
streak over 8 kilometres long. The "Canadairs" and "Air Tractors" were doing what they could, but as
most of the range is inaccessible to vehicles, the ground crews could not do much...
We were there on the third day of the fire, and our "ursinii zoo" was still spared. The airplanes were
busy all day throwing water bombs some two kilometres away from us. It seemed that THE mountain
would remain untouched... Three days later it was swallowed by flames. On the 1st of August it looked
like this:

(Photo: Ivo Peranić, 1 August 2012)

The only good news is that on the 1st of August Ivo & Co. managed to find a V. ammodytes, a C. austriaca and
a few L. agilis at some 950 m, still within the "death zone", but near to its edge. So, these animals might have
come from below... No sign of V. ursinii, however. Unfortunately, they can NOT come from lower altitudes.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

hope you will have some best news next year... did snakes take refuge underground or fleeing?

[Berislav Horvatic]

Snakes usually take refuge underground, hide in holes. And if they don't die of heat there,
they still suffocate, as the fire above them uses up oxygen... One can only hope that on a
meadow with dry grass the fire spreads and goes away quickly enough... We shall see.

[Gerald Ochsenhofer]

This would be a really interesting place now for some investigations on the aftermath of fires! Is there any methodic data on the population in this area from the last years available? If so, would be interesting to compare it with the coming seasons.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

where live the snakes (mainly ursinii) the grass could grow until some 40 cm, right Berislav ? The consumption of summer's dry grass could during some minutes only, and hope the wind put off the fire quickly ?