Trip report - Montenegro 2009

[Hannes Hill]

Zamenis situla at Tivat peninsula

Olive grooves on Tivat peninsula, habitat of Zamenis situla, Hierophis gemonensis and Lacerta trilineata

Algyroides nigropunctatus

Habitat of A. nigropunctatus on Tivat peninsula

Mauremys rivulata

Brackish swamp, habitat for both water turtles

Dalmatolacerta oxycephala

Typical habitat for D. oxycephala

Water frog, sun basking

Ardea cinerea waiting for prey

Pseudopus apodus, basking in the evening sun

Testudo hermanni hiding

Platyceps najadum with prey in its stomach

Typhlops vermicularis

Tara valley

Cow sleeping on the main road...

Zabliak situated in the Durmitor mountains

Gerald, Richard & Rudi from Austria

Vipera berus bosniensis

Dinarolacerta mosorensis

Coronella austriaca

Dinarolacerta mosorensis

Lacerta agilis bosnica

Durmitor mountain

Zamenis longissimus

Bombina variegata ssp.

Habitat of B. variegata and Triturus alpestris ssp. in the Durmitor mountains

T. alpestris ssp.

Natrix tessellata

Malpolon monspessulanus fuscus

Habitat of M. monspessulanus, E. quatuorlineata and H. gemonensis

young Lacerta trilineata

Habitat of. L. trilineata and T. hermanni

Natrix natrix "persa"

Merops apiaster

Podarcis melisellensis fiumana

Testudo hermanni boettgeri

Island of Ada, habitat for T. hermanni, P. melisellensis, V. ammodytes and D. caspius

Anguis fragilis eating a worm

Vipera ammodytes from Ada

Channel at Ada

Empusa pulchrea

Emys orbicularis hellenica

Habitat of E. orbicularis, T. vulgaris and Natrix natrix

Triturus vulgaris graecus

Potamon fluvatilis

Rana graeca

Podarcis muralis ssp.

Habitat of R. graeca, Hyla arborea, T. vulgaris, L. trilineata and P. muralis

Vipera ammodytes

Skutari lake

Good bye! Till next time

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Very nice shots! Thanks for sharing! The oxycephala is an eyechatcher!!!

[Mario Schweiger]

Hello Hannes,

welcome to fieldherping.eu

And thanks a lot for these huge image gallery with very good shots!
Hope to see more from you!

[Ilian Velikov]

Amazing! This are some great photos! Thanks a lot! I love the Algyroides shot!

P.S. Are you sure that your " young L.trillineata" is not a young L.viridis ?

Best regards
Ilian

[Rok Grzelj]

Wow...great!
Like the bosniensis....really a aspis look-alike one

[Mario Schweiger]

@ Ilian

I think also, this is a young trilineata!
I know the area very well.
Its a mosaic in distribution of Lacerta trilineata and Lacerta viridis.
So you might not be sure, what you see or hold in hand, like the specimen below.
We havn´t been sure what it is

Lacerta trilineata 1

Lacerta trilineata 2

Lacerta trilineata 3

But now we are: DNA sample (tail tip)

[Ilian Velikov]

@ Mario

Interesting stuff!
I know there are more uniform young L.trillineata and the one from your shots is surely one of them (more than 20 temporal scales and on the first and last image you can see the supraciliaria granules above eye,which L.viridis don't have), but I'm not sure about the one from this report because you can't clearly see those two features from that photo! Maybe if Hannes have other shots of this lizard?....

As I was thinking about this I also looked at one of my pictures of young "L.viridis" which now I think is L.trillineata (I didn't notice the supraciliaria granules before)

Lacerta.jpg

Note that temporal scales look more like that of L.viridis (bigger and less in number (< 20))
What do you think?

Best regards
Ilian

[Hannes Hill]

I am sure that this was a trilineata. In that area only trili occours.

[Peter Oefinger]

Hi Hannes,
impressive pictures! At what time have you been there? Didn't you search for Dinarolacerta montenegrina?
Regards
Peter

[Hannes Hill]

Hello,
we have been there from 24th may to 1st of june.
We did not search for that new "species" - I still do not belive in the species-status of "montenegrina".