Hello!
I´m yet another swede. I grew up outside Uppsala, a town which may be most famous for the university and for beeing the town where Linnaeus lived and worked most of his life. As a 13-year old I discovered that there were a herpetological society i Uppsala (A member of the Swedish herpetological asociation). I joined instantly and have been a member in the asociation ever since. I think this was the best thing I´ve ever done, it was amazing to find a whole asociation with nutcases like me. And all the knowledge that was there in! Some of the members were newbies like me, but there were also most of Swedens higest regarded scientists and veterinarians, all very friendly and helpfull.
A few years later I moved to Stockholm, the capitol of sweden, and I lived there for almost 15 years. Stockholm is a nice city, but since my biggest interest in life is nature I got tired of living amongst concrete and thousands of people and started to dream about moving to the countryside.
Back in the days when I was a member of the Uppsala herpetological society we had financed a project to help the European spadefoot toad, Pelobates fuscus, to survive. The numbers of that species had decreased dramatically in Sweden during the last twenty years and they were allready extinct from most of their former range. The project was not complicated, we simply dug ponds in an area were they still existed but where suitable breedingponds were missing. It was a big success! Now, 12 years later, this is one of a handfull strong populations that remains here in Sweden. Unfortuneatly they have also been extinct from many places during these 12 years.
Anyway, this success made me and my wife Sara (who´s also a herpetomaniac) think that this is something that we could copy on our own. Two years ago, we bought a small piece of land and a farm i southern Sweden, just where the range of six of the most endangered amphibianspecies overlap. We´re now trying to make this piece of land as good as possible for the amphibians (digging ponds, making hibernation sites etc.) so their number can increase. At this point we have seen five of these species on our land, and at least two of them reproduce in the ponds. I´m looking forward to having them all here.
Whenever I have time I´m out in the wild to look for our native species of reptiles, amphibians, or other animals and plants. When possible I also love to go for longer trips, in Sweden and abroad. I´ve been to Costa Rica, Peru, Turkey etc., as well as some really cool destinations in Sweden. For example I was in Jukkasjärvi i northern Sweden some years ago and looked at Vipera berus at one of the northernmost snakelocalities in the world. A fantastic experience.
I´ve also kept terrarium animals since I was a child. Nowadays I mostly keep Trimeresurus s.l. (approx. 10 species), but also a few Vipera species, Corallus hortulanus etc. There´s something about Viperidae that I really like...
The picture of me is taken this spring on mount Ararat. The snake I´m holding is a Coluber najadum that I found there. I look a bit dissatisfied, but I can assure you that I was not.
Petter
Wed 30 Jul - 19:20
