Greece

Croatia, BiH, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece including ALL islands

Greece

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Sun Apr 30, 2017 7:07 am

Last week I visited Greece. And I`m too lazy for a long report in this difficult forum Language.
I arrived on Monday at late afternoon in South east Greece, left on Wednesday to the Northwest and from Thursday till Saturday I stayed at the Pindos area.
I had a new Rental car (603 km) after I brought it back it had a bit more (2252 km)
Day’s temperatures were ok, between 20 and 24 Degrees, but always a cold wind. Night’s temperatures were horrible between 6 and 8 Degrees, maybe a little bit lower.

A few pics.
Xanthina in situ
xanthina.jpg


Najadum in situ
najadum.jpg


Caspius not in situ
casp.jpg


Some more pics
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jrgengebh ... 0396425312
User avatar
Jürgen Gebhart
 
Posts: 1423
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:17 am
Hometown: Wiedergeltingen Bavaria
country: Germany

Re: Greece

Postby Guillaume Gomard » Sun Apr 30, 2017 8:46 am

Short and efficient :) Looks like a nice trip Jürgen! Did you have a hard time finding a living xanthina?
User avatar
Guillaume Gomard
 
Posts: 596
Joined: Thu May 20, 2010 12:29 pm
Hometown: Strasbourg
country: France

Re: Greece

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:55 pm

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Last week I visited Greece. And I`m too lazy for a long report in this difficult forum Language.
Najadum in situ
najadum.jpg

A Platyceps najadum IN SITU, stretched out just like that? That might well be the first one in human history...
Lucky you.
As for "this difficult forum Language", it's only English, as stated in the rules. You have luck with that too.
A century or two ago everyone would have chosen/preferred Latin, the then universal language of science
and all literate/educated Europeans. (Or maybe French, as the "second-best", but certainly not English...)
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Greece

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:20 pm

Guillaume Gomard wrote:Short and efficient :) Looks like a nice trip Jürgen! Did you have a hard time finding a living xanthina?


I found two living Xanthina, the DOR was a ammo.
Hard to find? No, Herping rule - right time, right place!
User avatar
Jürgen Gebhart
 
Posts: 1423
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:17 am
Hometown: Wiedergeltingen Bavaria
country: Germany

Re: Greece

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:22 pm

[/quote]As for "this difficult forum Language", it's only English, as stated in the rules. You have luck with that too.
A century or two ago everyone would have chosen/preferred Latin, the then universal language of science
and all literate/educated Europeans. (Or maybe French, as the "second-best", but certainly not English...)[/quote]

I don`t know, but I think a century or two ago there was no Internet Fieldherping Forum.
User avatar
Jürgen Gebhart
 
Posts: 1423
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:17 am
Hometown: Wiedergeltingen Bavaria
country: Germany

Re: Greece

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Sun Apr 30, 2017 7:47 pm

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:I don`t know, but I think a century or two ago there was no Internet Fieldherping Forum.

No Internet, but there was a Forum. Those people kept intense correspondence with each
other all across Europe, at least. Was quite efficient.

But what about the IN SITU najadum?
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Greece

Postby Kevin Esser » Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:31 pm

Berislav Horvatic wrote:A Platyceps najadum IN SITU, stretched out just like that? That might well be the first one in human history...


Not as streched out as Jürgen's najadum but still a similar observation.
Platyceps najadum in situ from southern Croatia:

p-najadum.jpg
Kevin Esser
 
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2014 9:26 pm
Hometown: Wiesbaden
country: Germany

Re: Greece

Postby Ruggero M. » Mon May 01, 2017 7:20 am

I've pictures of in situ Najadum too.
I've managed to take them using the "sit and wait" method, where I had seen a Najadum hiding place... (sorry: slides only... :cry: )

A curiosity about this species.
I've seen very often strange "wave-like" movements of the neck in this species, during slow movements of the snake and/or basking activity. The meaning of these movements is to me unknown, and I don't know whether other "Coluber" species have the same attitude: probably I've seen these movements also in viridiflavus, but I'm not sure of this, and certainly they are not so common as they are in najadum.

This short footage is an example of the neck movements I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mazkGnU ... e=youtu.be
Ruggero M.
 
Posts: 673
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 7:15 pm
Hometown: Pavia
country: Italy

Re: Greece

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Mon May 01, 2017 7:29 am

Berislav Horvatic wrote:But what about the IN SITU najadum?


I was standing on Stones behind on top of the the najadum, I observed that the head was light moving from left to right and back, it was on the hunt and was controlling the area in front.
I changed my Position for a better ankle to picture it. After 10 pictures I ask “how long will you stay?” I made a step forward and the snake was flying like an arrow in the bushes.
User avatar
Jürgen Gebhart
 
Posts: 1423
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:17 am
Hometown: Wiedergeltingen Bavaria
country: Germany

Re: Greece

Postby Ilian Velikov » Mon May 01, 2017 11:46 am

Ruggero Morimando wrote:This short footage is an example of the neck movements I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mazkGnU ... e=youtu.be


That's very interesting! I've never seen or heard of it. At first I thought it has to do with the muscle contractions needed for the snake to go backwards into the stone wall but then this would mean that other species would be doing the same and it would have been seen more often.

My theory is that it's a defensive behavior - moving the area with those big spots (which could resemble fake eyes?) while keeping the head completely still to confuse a predator and take the attention away from the grey head. The stones in najadum habitat are often grey so the head and background neck colour would blend in but the moving spots would stick out.

P. najadum spend a lot of time with their heads and necks sticking out of stones/rocks so this could explain the grey colouration and big (the size of the eye) spots on the first part of the body.
Ilian Velikov
 
Posts: 1216
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 12:19 pm
Hometown: Pravets
country: Bulgaria

Next

Return to Balkan peninsula

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

cron