Rescue mission & something interesting

[Vlad Cioflec]

Greetings fellow fieldherpers!

This weekend i went fieldherping in forest close to Bucharest, where some open manholes turned into traps for herptiles.

Here are a few shots:

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The rain started so we had to concentrate our efforts on bringing the animals safe to the surface, than to move them to a safer area. So only a few posed pics were taken:

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As we were leaving, we came upon this:

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Moral of the story: Go out and help the herps if you know some places where they are in trouble, and nature will reward you by showing you something cool!

Total species count for the day:

Triturus cristatus - 10
Pelobates fuscus - 1
Bombina bombina - 5
Rana dalmatina 1
Pelophylax ridibundus - 5
Lacerta viridis - 1
Lacerta agilis 12
Natrix natrix - 1

Happy Herpin`!

[Ilian Velikov]

Hi Vlad,

Nice thing you've done! What kind of holes were these exactly and why are they attracting that much herps?

[Mario Schweiger]

Hi Vlad,

thanks for posting!

You have been the lucky guy to find them still alive.
Mostly you find only mummies.

And the Pelophylax, eating the Pelobates. You see, these frogs can swallow other animals nearly of size of the predator.
So we have a problem with ridibundus here in Austria. This species is still spreading. And where it occurs, other amphibians decline!

@Ilian
I think, the animals are not really atracted by these holes, they just drop in on their way. Maybe they are looking for some shelter?

Mario

[Vlad Cioflec]

Hi guys,

I was in a hurry when i first posted ( today is my birthday and i have to prepare for a small office party...)

I`ve discovered the forest and the 20 traps that surround it about 3 or 4 years ago, and i go on this kind of rescue missions every couple of months. ( Posted a few on Vipersgarden.at)

Can`t say that the herps are attracted to the microhabitat really, IMHO they fall in during night time foraging activities, and spring / fall `migrations`; especially the amphibians, which represent about three quarters of our `catch`.

There is an upside to all this though. That forest is the best place to take newbies and show him a dozen species in a few hours than get him hooked on herps!In fact this is exactly what i did the other day with a firend`s 7 year old boy.

Cheers!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Very nice sand lizards you have there!!!

Sometimes I hate this Pelophylax eatingmachines!!!!

[Tibor Sos]

here is something interesting... one of the lizard looks like the red-backed form of the L. agilis agilis. probably this form occurs in this subspecies (chersonensis) too, but not documented till now... although in some places, ex. in Buzau county, the two forms intergradate...

[Mario Schweiger]

Hi Tibor,

its well documented => erythronotus in chersonensis.
See: Bischoff, W. (1988): Zur Verbreitung und Systematik der Zauneidechse, Lacerta agilis Linaeus, 1758. - In: Glandt, D. & W. Bischoff (Ed.): Biologie und Schutz der Zauneidechse (Lacerta agilis).- Mertensiella 1: 11 - 30.
The PDF file is in my database: http://www.vipersgarden.at/lit_db.php

Mario

[Tibor Sos]

thank you, best regards, t.