herping for meadow vipers in hungary -V. ursinii rakosiensis

[Markus Oulehla]

Hi,
as I see here is some interest in european vipers, so I want to show you one of the maybe rarest vipers, or at least one that's really hard to find^^

Last year we were invited to join some hungarian friends, who are working on meadow vipers, to search them in the Puszta, pannonian steppe.
So were lucky, as it's not easy to get the permission and you just don't know where to start searching for them...
Vast meadows, almost without any structure and lots of mice-/rat holes, so it's good to have some experienced people around you, and more eyes spot more herps of course.
So it was a great experience to be on the "hunt" with these guys, great people, as most herpers I've met from/in various countries.

We arrived in the middle of nowhere in a huge national park in central hungary.
A varied landscape, with many different habitats...

Puszta von markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr

grasshoppers, crickets and lizards everywhere...

european green lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr


some quite confident

markusOulehla auf Flickr


Parts of the area had been destroyed by a fire a few months ago, but nature recovers...

markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


european green lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr

On the sandy hills we found Podarcis tauricus

balkan wall lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr



also quite common in the sandy areas

markusOulehla auf Flickr



Myrmeleontidae von markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


Although it's a very dry area, we came along some tiny and one bigger pond...

markusOulehla auf Flickr



fire-bellied toad von markusOulehla auf Flickr


Back on the meadow...

Puszta von markusOulehla auf Flickr

...lots of lizards again...

european green lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr


sand lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr

... and some cool arthropods

Saga pedo von markusOulehla auf Flickr


Cheiracanthium erraticum von markusOulehla auf Flickr



Suprisingly in the middle of the plains, european pond turtle quite far away from the ponds...

markusOulehla auf Flickr

obviously she wanted to lay her eggs, so we moved on

markusOulehla auf Flickr

After some hours of searching, we were rewarded with this little beauty

hungarian meadow viper von markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr

We also found grass snakes (Natrix natrix persa, I think?!) in the grassland...

markusOulehla auf Flickr


After a rainy evening we saw some Pelobates fuscus

common spadefoot von markusOulehla auf Flickr


common spadefoot von markusOulehla auf Flickr


On our way back we stopped at another place, a little north to search for some arthropods...

jackpot!!! a spider-hole

markusOulehla auf Flickr

and its owner

Geolycosa vultuosa von markusOulehla auf Flickr


Geolycosa vultuosa von markusOulehla auf Flickr


markusOulehla auf Flickr


one of the nicest salticids in europe

Philaeus chrysops von markusOulehla auf Flickr


Lucanus cervus

stag beetle von markusOulehla auf Flickr

and some lizards (of course )

european green lizard von markusOulehla auf Flickr

It was a wonderful weekend and I hope you enjoy the pictures


regards
Markus

[chrish]

Very nice. Nice to see a new diversity of critters on here.

Those vipers look kind of "cute".

[cbernz]

Cool vipers, but man! Those green lizards are awesome!!

[PrimitiveTim]

This brings me back to when I first started herping. I remember seeing plenty of natrix and a few L. trilineata and viridis. It always amazed me how much those grass snakes look like some of the garter snakes in the US. That viper is stunning! They have such a clean pattern. Thanks for sharing!

[Terry Vandeventer]

Forty years ago a friend in Europe sent me a pair of Danubian Meadow Vipers with the instructions to feed them "grass horses" and "mouse cubs." They thrived and ate almost anything offered, including raw meat. Great little snakes and now sadly, highly endangered.

Cheers,

TV

[Jon Wedow]

Great post! I would love to see any Vipera some day!

[dery]

I think the European pond gal laying her eggs looks like the one most fought over by the local men.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Nice! As rakosiensis is the only European viper subspecies I have yet to see, this obviously caught my attention.

Natrix natrix persa, I think?!

See the map in Kindler et al. (2013). Traditionally, the introgression zone of persa and natrix is considered to just touch the extreme southwest of the country. The traditional range of persa however hosts numerous mtDNA clades & what traditionally is considered persa is clearly a polyphyletic assemblage, thus complicating assessment of the usefulness/validity of the subspecies persa. Subspecies like schweizeri and gotlandica are questioned as well. For this snake, however, the best label would be Natrix natrix natrix.