Last Friday (09.10.2009) my girlfriend and I went to visit National park "Paklenica". This park is located on southernmost part of Velebit mountain, and is near the Adriatic sea, so it has a mixed climate. The weather was perfect, sunny and without a cloud, temperatures were up to 22 degrees Celsius. The weather report predicted bad weather from the next day, so I guessed this is my last chance to see some snakes.
First day (Friday) was perfect, we followed a path to the mountains, and here's what we saw:
- Algyroides nigropunctatus basking on a rock.
- Vipera ammodytes, male, drinking water.
- Melanistic grass snake
- Lacerta viridis, male
- Lacerta viridis, female
Second day we woke up early, and the weather was quite dark, sky covered with heavy clouds. But it was still warm, so we decided to check the mountains for more herps. But, instead of herps, we encountered a young bear
- Ursus arctos arctos
We were not scared, or nervous, but as the bear was 20 meters away from us, we climbed the nearest tree, just in case
- Waiting on a tree till the bear walks away.
And finnally, as the bear didn't want to move away from his rock (and our passage was 5 meters away from him), after one hour spent on a tree, we decided to go back. Stubborn bear! At least he didn't follow us back.
After this encounter, it started to rain, so we ended our herp search, and next day went back home to Zagreb. On the way down the mountain there were dosens of this little fellows. They really enjoy the rain:
- Salamandra salamandra
So, now I really know that herpetologist has to be prepared for everything!
