Italy & Switzerland - may 2018

Italy & Switzerland - may 2018

Postby Thor Hakonsen » Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:16 am

I got invited to join «ze Germans» for a short trip to Piemonte in the italian alps, to look for Vipera walser early may in 2018, and who could say no to trip like that ?

We drove from Frankfurt in Germany, and on the way back from Italy we decied to also look for Vipera aspis atra in the Swiss alps. This route also gave me the opportunity to see Marmots and Chamois!

Many thank to Michael, Alexander and Jürg for inviting me on this amazing trip. And also a great thanks to Dario for giving us the tip of a great valley to check out (even though the trip up there got spoiled by the weather)

Read more here : http://www.wondersofcoldblood.com/trave ... land-2018/

Image

Image

They habitat and scenery in the Italian alps is amazing – and well worth a visit even without finding vipers!

What was very interesting with this trip, is that many of the species we find is the exact same as we have far up north in Norway, like the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca), slow worm (Anguis fragilis) and viviparous lizard (Zootoca viviparus)

Image

Image

Image

Smooth Snakes (Coronalla austriaca) from Piemonte, Italy

Image

Image

Image

Alexander Pieh out looking for reptiles in the late morning. Piemonte, Italy

Image

When out looking for reptiles, one often also cross path with other animals and birds.
Here a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in the slopes. Piemonte, Italy

But none of the above was the goal for this trip. We wanted to find the Walser viper (Vipera walser), that is a endemic species for this small region in Piemonte.
We walked many miles in search for it, up and down steep rock slides and slopes in the mountains.

Image

ürg Navrade on his way up to a location for V.walser..
..only to find a huge rain storm to start when we came to the spot..

But the good thing with that weather, is that we got to find a fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)

Image

But in the end, we got lucky – Jürg spotted a snake going in to hiding, and we came back a bit later and fortunatly Alexander was able to control it so that we was able to get a good look at this beatiful creature, a male Walser Viper.

Image

Image

Image

Image

After the success in Piemonte, on our way back to Germany we stopped in a beatiful valley in the swiss alps to look for V.aspis. And what a stop it was. We found several V.aspis, and also I got to see marmots and chamois. This is a place I will need to visit again in the future!!

Image

The valley we visited in Switzerland.

Image

There where many marmots (Marmota marmota) on the sides of the road and in the slopes in the valley

Image

Image

Image

The first Asp Viper (Vipera aspis) we found was a beatiful melanistic female, just when the sun finally peeked through the skies.

Image

Image

After this, Alexander and Jürg both found some large «normal» colored specimens some hundres meters from each other.

Image

The team for the trip (from right), Alexander Pieh, Thor Håkonsen, Jürg Navrade and Michael Wilms
User avatar
Thor Hakonsen
 
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:14 pm
Hometown: Neskollen
country: Norway

Re: Italy & Switzerland - may 2018

Postby Bobby Bok » Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:11 pm

That asp viper valley indeed sounds fantastic! Great post!
User avatar
Bobby Bok
 
Posts: 954
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:11 pm
Hometown: Heemskerk
country: Netherlands

Re: Italy & Switzerland - may 2018

Postby Alexander Pieh » Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:06 pm

Yes, the locality in Switzerland is amazing!
Thank you, Mario, for showing me the place in 2010!
Always again to Jörg, Michael and Thor!
Absolutely Graet fotos Thor!
Jörg and me made a second short trip to Wallis and the "Valley" in september.
Here some Aspis pics.
PIH_Vipera_male.jpg
Vipera aspis male

PIH_V.a.-weiblich.jpg

PIH_V.a,portrait.jpg

On a higher altitude we saw also two Vipera berus.
PIH_berus-CH.jpg

However, whats live without Amphibians?
PIH_S.atra.jpg

Summer is coming!
Alexander Pieh
 
Posts: 45
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:36 pm
Hometown: Stuttgart
country: Germany


Return to Italy and Malta

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests