Herps of Bucharest

[Vlad Cioflec]

When i don`t have time to get out of the city, or the weather is not quite what we were hoping for, i go fieldherping and birding in some of the parks or undeveloped lots. Beats sitting around in front of the TV, or shopping , or cleaning.

Here`s what i found so far:

Common Newt Lissotriton vulgaris

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Great Crested Newt Triturus cristatus

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Marsh Frog Pelophylax ridibundus

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Green Toad Bufo viridis

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Fire-bellied Toad Bombina bombina

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Saw some Edible Frog Pelophylax kl. esculentus, but didn`t have the camera with me. Moving on.

European Pond Terrapin Emys orbicularis

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Red-eared Terrapin Trachemys scripta

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Sand Lizard Lacerta agilis

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Eastern Green Lizard Lacerta viridis

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Grass Snake Natrix natrix

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Saved the best for last.
One day, on a casual after work walk with my wife, she spotted a snake in the river that runs through the city. My first thought was Grass snake, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a Dice Snake Natrix tessellata. It was a very, very cool find, because this species was declared extinct in Bucharest!

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And last but not least, couple of months ago, while birding on a very hot summer`s day i heard some lizards run through the dried grass. It was no biggie, since i was used to seeing plenty of L. agilis and L. viridis in that area. But since i was bored, i decided to stick around and get some pics. When they emerged again, i was stunned! They were actually Common Wall Lizards Podarcis muralis! The first i`ve ever seen in the city!

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Not sure if any other species inhabit my town, but i`m keeping my eyes opened, and i`ll let you know if anything pops up.

Happy herping!
Vlad

[Ilian Velikov]

Great photos,Vlad! Quite a variety of species in and around Bucharest ! In our capital Sofia I've only seen B.viridis,P.ridibundus and P.muralis so far..but I didn't exactly go searching for any of them! Thanks for the interesting topic!

[Peter Oefinger]

wow! 13 species in the city - Bucharest should be declared a nature reserve

[Mario Schweiger]

Vlad,

thanks for the list and pictures of Bucharest town.

We, here in Salzburg town (within the town borders) have the following:

Lissotriton vulgaris
Mesotriton (or Ichtyosaura - I hate this name) alpestris
Triturus cristatus x Triturus carnifex
Salamandra salamandra
Salamandra atra! glacial relict on the mountain in the center of the town (you see it on the image, just north of Salzach river)

Rana dalmatina
Rana temporaria
Bufo bufo
Hyla arborea
Pelophylax esculentus
Bombina variegata? not seen since some years

Lacerta agilis
Zootoco vivipara? - not sure yet, but we have some rests of peat bogs in the south of the town
Anguis fragilis

Zamenis longissimus
Natrix natrix
Coronella austriaca

satellit image of town Salzburg

... and what you may found additional in a radius of 20 kms around town Salzburg:
Bombina variegata
Zootoca vivipara
Vipera berus

So, Salzburg beats Bucharest

I have no town herp pictures at the moment (only old slides), but will make them next year!

Mario

[Vlad Cioflec]

So you have 17 species over there. Good. But not good enough!

There are old records (from the 70`s) in Bucharest of: Hyla arborea, Pelobates fuscus, Rana dalmatina, Anguis fragilis, Ablepharus kitaibelii, Darevskia praticola and Coronella austriaca. I haven`t seen them yet because they`re supposed to live in the north side of the city, where a small forest still exists. Bu to be honest with you, i`m quite afraid to herp around there. There are some military facilities and also thieves lurk around.

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Anyway, Bucharest 20 - Salzburg 17

Vlad

[Tobias Schernhammer]

@ Mario
Where in the city of Salzburg lives Salamandra atra, or do you mean the population at "Untersberg" ?

[Liam Russell]

You folks have more herps in your cities than we have in the whole country...

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Bucharest is cool!!! Two species there are still missing on my picture list!!!!

[Kristian Munkholm]

Thanks for the report, Vlad.

As many of us live in and work in cities, urban herping is an interesting topic. A report on the possibilities in and around Copenhagen (17 species, at most 15 if you're a little more strict on the definition of "city limits") can be found at http://www.euroherp.com/Field/denmark.html.

I'd love to come back to Romania some time and do some herping. I was there three times back in the nineties but had little focus on herps at the time and only saw a few viviparous lizards and hordes of green toads - a shame, I guess...

[Vlad Cioflec]

Hi guys,

Went out yesterday to that marsh close to my building. Finally i was a able to take some pics of those rare Fire-bellied toads, and posted them in the main post. And I also liked how this Natrix photo turned out :

Cheers!