Croatia, 25./26.07.

[Mladen Zadravec]

Went on a two-day field trip with Bero, Dule, Boris and Marc to catch some Adders (Vipera berus). Although the weather for Saturday wasn't too good (cloudy and windy, not too warm), we managed to catch a total of 21 Adders! Also some Slow Worms (Anguis fragilis), 1 Grass Snake (N. n. helvetica) and a lot of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries...
Gravid female A. fragilis:



berus:






One female with a stumpy tail (an old injury that healed well):


On Sunday the weather was better- sunnier, warmer and with less wind. Naturally, we expected to find even more than yesterday. We caught only 3 ... and the same male N. n. helvetica and another female.
Two individuals from yesterday, during release:



male helvetica:


berus:

[Mario Schweiger]

Mladen,
where (approx.) you have been on this trip?
I ask, because of your Natrix natrix helvetica.
As far as IO know, helvetica may be found in Croatia only in the countries westernmost parts (Istria, west of Kapela mountain).
On Krk - for example - you have morphs, fitting to all three ssp. (nominate, persa (if one accepts as separate ssp.), helvetica).

And last but not least - very nice pictures of the adders
I like the last, nearly striped one!

Mario

[Mladen Zadravec]

It was somewhere in Gorski Kotar... Dule said it was helvetica, so...

On Krk - for example - you have morphs, fitting to all three ssp. (nominate, persa (if one accepts as separate ssp.), helvetica)

Yes, we even found one that resembled a "N. n. schweizeri" (when I was with Bero and Dule)! (more on that in one of my later posts)...

And last but not least - very nice pictures of the adders

Thanks!
Boris caught that female (in fact, Boris caught a lot of Adders on that trip... and he also ate the most berries )

[Nikola Rahmé]

Very good result for a two-days trip, Mladen. Congrats on the adders you found interesting variations. BTW nice report with good photos
Nikola

[Grégoire Meier]

wow! very nice berus!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

What a good luck you had!!!
Nice shots!!!

[Mladen Zadravec]

Thanks, everyone!

[Rok Grzelj]

Beautiful berus morphs!The "smoked" and the striped one are real beauties!
Did you make scalecount etc.....Which subspecies ...berus or bosniensis?
The same is in SW Slovenia...You can find some animals looking like "normal" berus and some like bosniensis

[Mladen Zadravec]

Which subspecies ...berus or bosniensis?

We're still working on it, I think... all I know is I measured 11 of them on Saturday... after that, everything is mostly a blur...