As soon as temperatures began rising in april, a friend of mine and I headed to Slovenia for a fairly early start to our herping season. Shortly after arriving at the first habitat, we found 1 Vammo and many P. muralis aswell as L. viridis, H.viridiflavus and N.tesselata.
The night was spent at a spot near a beautiful creek and during a cold beer in the evening we observed a young N. natrix hunting in a small pool, along with Bombina, Salamandra and some mating B.bufo.
It was a good first day.
Vipera ammodytes in situ by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Lacerta viridis by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
After an exhausting and luckless second day, we moved to the second habitat and soon found a couple Vammos and even a V.aspis. In this habitat we were able to film the mating of V.ammodytes.
We also saw 2 Z.longissimus there. The ammodytes on the picture was the biggest one Ive ever seen, must have been around 75cm long, a real monster!
Vipera ammodytes by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Vipera aspis francisciredi by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Our third and final stop was a habitat with a beautiful view to a couple of snowy mountains. The ammodytes population wasn´t as dense here, as the ones at the first habitats, but we wanted a picture in this great scenery and our gamble paid off with a semi adult individual on our firstday there. On the second day we found another, smaller ammodytes with beautiful orange coloration.
Vipera ammodytes by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Vipera ammodytes by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Herpwise it was a great trip, but the landscapes along our way are even as mentionable as the herps, so heres a couple of images shot on this trip:
Slovenia 2018 by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Waterfall, Slovenia by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Slovenia 2018 by Lennart Schmid, auf Flickr
Our total observations were:
8 Vipera ammodytes
1 Vipera aspis
2 Zamenis longissimus
3 Hierophis viridiflavus
4 Natrix tesselata
1 Natrix natrix
50+ Podarcis muralis
around 10 Lacerta viridis
15+ Bombina variegata
10+ Bufo bufo
2 Salamandra salamandra
Thank you all for reading my short report, I hope you have enjoyed it!