fieldherping.eu

after Elaphe schrecki now Pituophis catenifer
https://www.naturetoday.com/intl/nl/nature-reports/message/?msg=23554

I wonder if there's a country with a higher number of introduced species than the Netherlands?

Ilian Velikov wrote:I wonder if there's a country with a higher number of introduced species than the Netherlands?

Florida, USA maybe...
Geckos from around the world, different species of pythons, chameleons, I iguana, B. plumifrons, N. sagrei, O. septentrionalis and further species.

Still there is an "unpleasant fame" for the introduced species in the Netherlands.
The most important questions are whether they reproduce and what are the effects on the ecosystem.

Must be very strange to encounter P. catenifer during a walk through the dutch dunes...

Ilian Velikov wrote:I wonder if there's a country with a higher number of introduced species
than the Netherlands?

Maybe just not yet noticed/registered in some other countries. A bigger terrain,
a smaller number of herpers in the field... Who knows...

Reminds me of the wild Orthriophis taeniurus friesei found in Belgium (see discussion from last year). Regarding the question of Ilian, the fact that there are so many reptile fairs in and around the Netherlands (Houten, Hamm, etc.) surely does not help... This being said regular exotic reptiles are also regularly found in France, for example. Finding an isolated specimen is something but finding several snakes is much more serious. Do they say in this article if they found more than 1 Pituophis?

So far only a few individuals have been found and all sightings are adults. So no reproduction yet...

For those who are interested in seeing all sightings: https://waarneming.nl/soort/view/102327 ... how_zero=0

Few years back there have been several Elaphe dione sightings in the same area but they never became established.

Thanks for the link, Bobby. So either several specimens escaped at least 3 years ago and they are surviving, or someone is introducing them on purpose. In both cases I hope that there is a plan to remove them from this habitat!

Don't you just hate the Dutch with their jealousy-provoking trip reports, alien species and lethal fungi...

Didn't know these were catenifer (again).

The specimen on photo isn't a catenifer. It's a Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus...

Frédéric Seyffarth wrote:The specimen on photo isn't a catenifer. It's a Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus...

Please see what I wrote - that species seems no longer valid.