Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture?

hello,

recently i found some picture from Vipera a. ammodytes (Scutari See), wow - did anyone ever said we dont have colorful snakes in europe?
if you have some photograph of them, please post some here, i would love to see some color variations from this particular population!

thanks
Mario

Hello Mario,

we have some of the most beautiful snakes in Europe. Concerning colour, variation and pattern, Vipera ammodytes surely belongs to them. They can have any colour you can imagine, even green or blue. I have benn working with these snakes for almost 40 years and still find new variations. I was in Montenegro (part of Lake Skutari belongs to that country) recently and in 4 days of suitable weather I found about 70 of them. This trip was almost exclusively for taking fotos and it was worth it. Montenegro is home of the most beautiful V. ammodytes and of some of the most interesting ones.
I wanted to send some fotos but - sorry - I didn´t manage to attach them. I´ll try and learn it and send them later.

Best wishes,
Rainer

Hello Rainer,

first - welcome to VenomLand - it is such an honor to have you here with us!

thanks for your posting, i understand you having difficulties to upload pictures. i am ager to see your viper pics, therefore i have made a posting on how to upload picture into the forum:

it can be found here - how to upload picture

i hope it will help you, otherwise, please dont hesitate to contact me...

thank you very much!
Cheers

Mario

Mario a friend of mine kepps 1.1 of them. I can get some pics if u want.

cheers

chris

Hello Mario,
I couldn´t try any sooner - I hope it worked.
This is a foto of a undisturbed male V. a. ammodytes from an isolated marsh area among fields close to Lake Skutari. taken ca 2 weeks ago. These V. ammod. don`t get bigger than 45cm in nature whereas others from "normal" rocky habitat only 5km away grow up to 85cm in natuire, 100cm in the terrarium.

As soon as I´ll have the time i´ll post more fotos.

I hope you´ll enjoy it,
Rainer

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Ada_m_11

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Ada_m_11

Hello Rainer,

thank you very much! i love this picture....
strange that they have this differences between only 5 km in the length.

again, thanks
Mario

That is one beautiful snake!! I must try to get some of these!!
Cheers
Gavin

hehe Gavin - there he goes again! cheers

Some of our members here breed them successful Gav - i believe its easy to organize some nice babies for you..

cheers
Mario

Hello Mario,
first: Thank you for the "recepe" for inserting fotos, as you see, it worked even with me.
Second: There will be more fotos, some taken in the wild, some in captivity. As I have a number of breeding groups of V. ammodytes from Montenegro coming from 5 different locations in that beautiful country, I did not take home any from this trip. I have 3 pregnant females from the location where I found tha male on the foto, their "husbands" are at least as beautiful as that male.
I think the difference in size is caused by habitat and isolation. Up to now I found 3 localities in Montenegro with V. ammod. living in marshy habitat and often fleeing into water and hiding there. In all of them these snakes remain very small (up to 45cm) but live in very dense populations. 2 of these places have been isolated from other ammod.-habitat for a very long time and even if you breed these animals and feed the babies like others, they don´t get bigger than 50-55cm.
Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m_11

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m_11

Male from 1000m altitude
Hello Gavin,
getting some of these snakes will be no problem, I expect at least 100 babies this year and a number of other people breed them too. The problems for you might be to get them to South Africa and depending upon where you live, achieving the suitable climate for them. For most of the year they need cool nights and they need a hibernation for 4-5 months at 5-12°C, depending upon where they come from.

thats very interesting Rainer,

we have some island population who grow huge, gigantism is well known.
our Naja philippinensis for that matter, i have never seen one longer than 1,20 m but here in Mindoro, they can grow very huge.. found several times some close to two meter in length..

the picture of the Vipera ammodytes Male is very nice, especially because you`ve shoot it in the wild... everybody - photographing snakes know how difficult it is..

thanks for sharing, i am looking forward to see more of them...

Cheers
Mario

Hi Rainer
That would be awesome if I could get some of these from you! I had a few many years ago, but not sure of subspecies now, but there were 4 color phases. I managed to breed them twice( As well as Vipera Raddei) by hibernating them in a fridge for about 3 months at 6 to 8 degrees. I never heated them in summer here either as it was hot enough!
I had one baby that never grew either! It just ate and ate and after about 3 years it was twice hatchling size only, but looked like a Bitis Arietans it was so fat!
@ Mario you know what it feels like!! When you see something so beautiful you have to have it!! It is very hard to look at all these lovely snakes and not want them! I saw Peters N Atra and man they are gorgeous!! I must just keep quiet for the moment!!
Cheers
Gavin

Hi Mario, Hi Gavin,

now I can bring the fotos I promised.
All these V.ammodytes are from places close to Lake Skutari in Montenegro. Most of them are taken in nature, some in a terrarium. They give an impression of how V. ammod. can look there but only show a few variations.
Female 1, 2 and 3 are the daughters of Male 2 (he is only 45 cm long, I caught him as an adult 5 years ago), the mother ist yellowish-brown.
I hope these are not too many fotos and I hope you like them.

Rainer

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m210

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m210

Male 1

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m_12

Male 2

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m_13

Male 3

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_m_15

Male 4

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_w_11

Female 1

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_w_12

Female 2

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_w_13

Female 3

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? Amm_w_15

Female 4

well, thank you so very much Rainer...
that sure are some awesome pictures of awesome snakes..

i am surprised by the variability of Vipera ammodytes..
they are truly amazing... i have to say, i am a fan of them...

i could not even chose my favorites out of your pictures, very difficult indeed...

thanks again for showing us....

Cheers
M.

Hi,

here are three females of my Crna Gora (Montenegro) breeding stock.
Hope, you will enjoy?

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? CG_0908_dr

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? CG_0908_dr

the "dark red" female

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? CG_0908_or

the "orange" female

Vipera ammodytes (scutari see), did anyone have picture? CG_0908_ye

the yellow female

Mario

Wow, they are awesome too.. i love the red one!
how does the offspring of them looks like? same colorful ?

thanks for sharing

cheers
Mario

Quote :: how does the offspring of them looks like? same colorful ?

They are born in an ordinary grey! I thought sh..., when I saw the first one!

So, I´m hibernating them in their first winter for about 8 to 10 weeks, they start to change color in their first spring. To get brightful it needs about one year more.

Mario

really nice animals Mario - and first class picture..
i have heard of their habits in changing the color within the first two years.. well, if you see this pics, i could only agree with Rainer Fesser, he wrote one time here at the Board, "we have some of the most beautiful Snakes here in Europe"!

thanks again
Cheers
Mario

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