Passau area Germany

[Jürgen Gebhart]

I decided today to take a day off and go in the field.
I drove to an area east of Passau, more than two and a half hour drive from my hometown.
This area is one of a few hot spots in Germany, seven Reptilspecies occur there.
For you people in the south, it sounds like a joke, but it is true it`s a german hot spot!!!!!!!!
This is the only place where Zamenis longissimus and Lacerta viridis occur together in Germany!!!
There is also a introduced population of Podarcis muralis nigriventris, one of the biggest introduced populations of Podarcis muralis in Germany.

In this area occur:
Zamenis longissimus (found 3)
Coronella austriaca (5)
Natrix natrix (2)
Lacerta viridis (many)
Podarcis muralis nigriventris (many more)
Lacerta agilis (0)
Anguis fragilis (0)

Podarcis muralis nigriventris

k-nigriventris 1.jpg

k-nigriventris 2.jpg

k-nigriventris 3.jpg

Lacerta viridis

k-viridis.jpg

Coronella austriaca in situ

k-Coronella situ 1.jpg

k-Coronella situ 2.jpg

After a while I came a cross this situation. No one moved, not the lizard, not the snake, not me.
About a minute later I made a very bad pic and leave them allone.

k-liz snake.jpg

A few minutes later I came back, the lizard was gone and the snake was still looking for food!

k-Coronella.jpg

Zamenis longissimus in situ

k-longissimus situ 1.jpg

k-longissimus.jpg

Natrix natrix

k-natrix.jpg

[Ilian Velikov]

Great post! It's always nice to see in-situ photos from the field!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Thank you Ilian!!!

[Peter Oefinger]

Hi Jürgen,

great pictures - I wish to go there sometime.
I didn't know that Zamenis longissimus occurs there - is this a natural population or are they introduced?
Regards
Peter

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Hello Peter,

This is, as far as I know, a natural population.

Regards Jürgen

[Andreas Thorbeck]

Hey du alter Salamander-Sammler,

Respekt, der Tag bei Passau hat sich echt gelohnt! Super, so viele Arten an einem Tag zu sehen!
Eindrucksvolle Bilder!
Falls Du mal Lust auf gemeinsames Herping hast, melde Dich!
Wir waren am WE um den 1. Mai im Bayerischen Wald und haben immerhin zwei große Natrix und einen Berus-Mann photografieren können!
Viele Grüße von dem Ex-Franken und Neu-Oberpfälzer
Andreas Thorbeck

[Andreas Thorbeck]

Uuupps... Forgot that this forum is in English... Sorry!

Hi you snake-watcher,

What a successful day near Passau. Must have been a perfect day seeing all these different species...!
If you`d like do do a herping trip together in the next few weeks, just write!
Would be fun meeting you again!
Greetings from the "Ex-Fraconian" and "New-Upperpfalzerian"
Andreas Thorbeck