What time Telescopus is out?

[Mario Schweiger]

Telescopus fallax is a really hard to observe snake!

Mostly it is found beneath rocks or debries.
But when they are out?.
Only a few observations are known.

So here my experiences from last weekend.

On May, 24th, on the way from Stara Baska to Punat (island Krk, Croatia), we saved 3 Telescopus fallax from the road within 15 minutes.
All were "sitting" (a bit coiled), not one was crawling.
None before or after.
Time was about 5 minutes to eight up to 15 minutes after eight.
Weather conditions: very warm, but clouds coming up and filled the whole sky (it started to rain about 30 minutes later, just a few drops to make the road a bit wet).
It was just at the beginning of dusk.
So this time seems to be the time, cat snakes are out!

Telescopus fallax near Punat, island Krk, Croatia. Photo taken with flash in dusk.

One time I observed Telescopus fallax in the early morning, just after sunrise (at the locality, I observed the snake) near Zadar, Croatia.
Another one I first heared hissing out of a stone wall in Ephesus just after dark.

What are your experiences with Telescopus?

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Hello,
I ever found Telescopus at day under stones or pieces of wood, never at night.

[David Bird]

I have only ever found 2 live specimens of Telescopus fallax as far as I can recall and both were in the day.
One was on the island of Hvar, Croatia and was in the morning at 08.36 on the 19.05.2000 and was in between the stones making up what was left of the roof of a small ruined stone building on the mountain ridge south of the eastern end of Jelsa. It had about ½ of its body out in the sun and the rest in between the flat stones, the snake let me video it for about 5 minutes without moving. I was leaving that morning to go for a week on the mainland and had packed most of my equipment so did not take any temperature recordings.
The other was on the island of Losinj, the smaller island joined to Cres and was midway between the towns of Mali Losinj and Veli Losinj , it was a plump black and white female 53 cm body + 9 cm tail and was basking on some of the rocks making up the embankment of the main road as it passed across a small valley, it was on the south side of the road at 12.30 on the 31.05.1998 a few days after the Mediterranean Lacertids symposium . The air temperature was 25 C and the rock surface was 31 C. I did manage to catch the animal as I tumbled down the embankment and photographed it at the bottom.
I found several specimens on Cephallonia but all were D.O.R.

David

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

very nice shot and position!!!

[Nikola Rahmé]

Telescopus was one of the most wished species for me for many years. Last year in Croatia I was successful in observing this fantastic snake. In the middle of June I found three specimens with my friend in Dalmatia near lake Vrana. The first one I saw it from our car moving across the road at dusk. With a quick stop and jumping out the car my friend caught it before the snake fade away in the bush. It was a 25 cm long juvenile, the time was 8.30 pm. We have put it to a bag and the next day photographed in daylight. Evening we returned to release the snake. On the way back to our accomodation we stopped near a ruin. That was in the real night, so we got our torches and looked for insects. Surprisingly I found another juvenile Telescopus on a stone in the grass and a few minutes later my friend found an adult (40 cm) on the wall (!!) of the ruin between the door's wood and the wall's stones. This one has been looking for preys on the wall, as we also found many insects and scorpions on the stones. These nights were really warm summer nights with 26-27 degrees. I think if anybody have a good locality, with a little bit of luck can find cat snake in hot nights on rocks or stones. And do not forget a good torch!

Here are a few pictures of these beauties:

The habitat of the cat snakes.

Three cat snakes before release.

Nikola