Hierophis virdiflavus in action

[Bastien Comment]

On the 28th of May, Stéphane, his son, my father and I had the unbelievable chance to witness something rare. At first, we didn't notice what was going on but we saw one and then two Hierophis coming in and out of a damaged terrace. On the following pictures, you see one of them:

Then we slowly moved to the other side to have a better view:

And then...

A fight began just in front of us!

And the winner is

I'm sure some of you can confirm but as I've understood, firstly there are 2 males fighting and then, on the picture where you can see one biting the other, it's the mating. Correct? At least, I can tell you it was absolutely amazing to see this happening just in front of us, less than 2 meters away! What a day!

I hope Stéphane will also add some pictures, he must have some exclusive shots to complete the topic

[Ilian Velikov]

Great observation! I love the large colubrid snakes and I'm very interested in their secretive lifestyle. You definitely don't see them doing stuff like that every day!

[Guillaume Gomard]

Salut Bastien,

I'm happy for you that you could witness such a great scene. One question: Is it possible that the last pictures (i.e the Hierophis bitting) just corresponds to the prolongation of the combat? From my experience (and also a recent post which illustrates very well this behavior), it's not impossible by H.viridiflavus to see the 2 males bitting during the combat.

Guillaume

[Ilian Velikov]

Is it possible that the last pictures (i.e the Hierophis bitting) just corresponds to the prolongation of the combat?

It makes sense. The seemingly 'defeated' male is going back into the wall rather than going away so it might be him again on the bitting photos.

[Bastien Comment]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedbacks. Indeed I'm absolutely no expert with this, it's the first time ever I have the chance to witness this (Guillaume, as you might have thought, it's at the same place where we found the fat Natrix natrix and missed the Hierophis and Zamenis). But I can also add that the snake whom you can't see the head seemed to shiver...

I would be happy to have more comments because it interests me quite much to know what happened here

[Stéphane Aubry]

Very happy to watch your pics, that was a great moment