Mario Schweiger wrote:At the time of our visit - after the mating season - all vipers, except gravid females, are hiding and will come out again, when grasshoppers reach a length of min. 16 mm.
Vipers, young and old ones, start feeding around at the middle of July (depending of weather and temperature conditions) first in the year.
Thanks for the info Mario!
Mario Schweiger wrote:Last and this year Jean Pierre and coleguages found subadult Malpolon monspesulanus for the first time in ursinii habitat on Mont Ventoux (1'420 m asl).
Climate change ?
Wow. In Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain), my friend Juan Pablo Gonzalez de la Vega found a DOR Malpolon (with a Hemorrhois hippocrepis inside) at 2000 msnm or more. But Granada is warm. In Madrid is difficult to find a Malpolon up to 1400msnm. So in Mount Ventoux sounds really strange!! There are many studies because Malpolon males need a large warm season to reproduce (Cheylan et al., 1981; Saint Girons, 1982; Feriche, 1998...) so it´s incredible the adaptation of this warm snake to the cold Mount Ventoux!! I´m sure that when I will visit Mount Ventoux I will see many Malpolon and 0 ursinii!
(in Mount Hermon, Golan Heights, it´s possible to find Zamenis hoenickeri, Elaphe sauromates, Hemorrhois ravergieri, Montivipera bornmuelleri... and last trip we only found a Malpolon insignitus!!! up to 1600msnm!)