Central France trip

France, British isles

Central France trip

Postby Pablo Deschepper » Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:42 pm

Two weeks ago I was in La Brenne (Central France) with some colleagues for work but I also found some time to go herping. There's something nice to see around every corner in that area, not only herp-wise but also for birds, invertebrates and flora. I managed to see 4 species of snakes (pictured below) together with Bombina, European pond terrapins, Lacerta bilineata and Podarcis muralis. We also found one pretty large DOR H. viridiflavus (1m43).


One of the 2 Hierophis viridiflavus

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Me with the DOR one (which will be added to a museum collection in Leuven)

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Vipera aspis

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One of many Natrix helvetica

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Natrix maura

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and a link to a stop motion I did for a puffing Natrix maura (can't link the video here directly because it will not loop): https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjsl_s3DFRD ... wild.pablo

Bombina variegata

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Re: Central France trip

Postby Michal Szkudlarek » Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:21 pm

Nice
Are european pond turtles as common in France as in Balkans?
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Alexandre Roux » Mon Jun 11, 2018 7:00 pm

Michal Szkudlarek wrote:Nice
Are european pond turtles as common in France as in Balkans?


No they're not even if they can be in some really well preserved areas. And believe me, that's a very hard find in France !
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Michal Szkudlarek » Mon Jun 11, 2018 7:41 pm

Alexandre Roux wrote:
Michal Szkudlarek wrote:Nice
Are european pond turtles as common in France as in Balkans?


No they're not even if they can be in some really well preserved areas. And believe me, that's a very hard find in France !

Why? Because environment is too transformed by humans?
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Pablo Deschepper » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:27 am

Michal Szkudlarek wrote:
Alexandre Roux wrote:
Michal Szkudlarek wrote:Nice
Are european pond turtles as common in France as in Balkans?


No they're not even if they can be in some really well preserved areas. And believe me, that's a very hard find in France !

Why? Because environment is too transformed by humans?


The European pond turtle seems te be restricted to the more natural wetland systems in Europe. This type of ecosystem has become increasingly rare because drainage of wetlands has long been common practice and still is sometimes. For the remaining patches of wetlands, habitat fragmentation has a huge effect on populations of animals within them like pont turtles. Stochastic effects (both genetically and environmentally) take its toll and populations get wiped out. The quality of wetlands has also deteriorated a lot because of intensification of farmlands around them. Nowadays wetlands are getting more attention from conservationists (think of the Ramsar convention) but species like the European pond turtle are bad dispersers over large distances like we see between existing suitable habitat. The European pond terrapin must have been way more common before humans started to alter the environment in such a dramatic way.
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Ruggero M. » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:39 am

I don't see the pictures of viridiflavus and helvetica. Am I the only one with this problem, or am I the only one to write this? :|
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Pablo Deschepper » Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:52 am

Ruggero Morimando wrote:I don't see the pictures of viridiflavus and helvetica. Am I the only one with this problem, or am I the only one to write this? :|

Weird, the helvetica and viridiflavus pictures are linked from google photos. Maybe that's causing the problem?
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Michal Szkudlarek » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:40 am

Pablo Deschepper wrote:
Ruggero Morimando wrote:I don't see the pictures of viridiflavus and helvetica. Am I the only one with this problem, or am I the only one to write this? :|

Weird, the helvetica and viridiflavus pictures are linked from google photos. Maybe that's causing the problem?

I dont see these photos as well. Maybe it is only you who see them because only you are logged to your google account.
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Re: Central France trip

Postby Pablo Deschepper » Wed Jun 13, 2018 4:15 pm

Michal Szkudlarek wrote:
Pablo Deschepper wrote:
Ruggero Morimando wrote:I don't see the pictures of viridiflavus and helvetica. Am I the only one with this problem, or am I the only one to write this? :|

Weird, the helvetica and viridiflavus pictures are linked from google photos. Maybe that's causing the problem?

I dont see these photos as well. Maybe it is only you who see them because only you are logged to your google account.

I hope the problem is solved now. I have used bytenbit to get a link to embed the images here.
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