fieldherping.eu

spent a nice sunday afternoon in the Austrian Salzkammergut hiking up a mountain, of course with hundreds of other people, but this didn't stop some berus to sun themselves right in the middle of the crowd, or at least very close to it. It was kind of a family thing, but one couldn't help looking at those beautiful "bystanders" in perfect viper habitat. Always worth to go out for berus in the Salzkammergut

Interesting, that broken pattern!

looks more like bosniensis or even aspis than berus to me...

Never mind, we had to "swallow" the same troubling questions regarding the population of V. berus berus in the
region of Gorski Kotar, in Croatia. All kind of patterns, at the same (small) locality - up to the "aspis-like"...

Very nice pictures...you are a lucky one these days. Do you have any information or suggestions about the abundance of melanistic vipers in this area?

nice observations on the "sheep mountain"
never mind on the pattern.
there are some populations with a bosniensis, or even true aspis pattern north of the alps.

Mario

Christoph Andrijczuk wrote:Very nice pictures...you are a lucky one these days. Do you have any information or suggestions about the abundance of melanistic vipers in this area?

unfortunately not, I am also not aware of any study in that area dealing with melanism. But maybe Mario knows better, as the area is almost in his backyard My personal experience - mostly from other areas in the alps - is that at least 25% of berus are melanistic, but maybe it's just for the reason that I do not overlook them as easily as their better camouflaged congeners

Erich Köck wrote:But maybe Mario knows better, as the area is almost in his backyard

sorry, no. havnt been there for quite a long time