Cyprus ´12

Hi everyone,

we (a few crazy snake guys Laughing

) made a herpeto-trip to cyprus this year. Our main target were the big levante vipers on the island. Here are a few pics, I hope you like it Smile

Cyprus ´12 Dolichophis-jagularis-neonate-2

Cyprus ´12 Macrovipera-lebetina-InSitu-2

Cyprus ´12 Chameleo-chameleon-recticrista

Cyprus ´12 Mesobuthus-gibbosus-1900m-asl-Habitat

Cyprus ´12 Telescopus-fallax-cyprianus-2

Cyprus ´12 Macrovipera-lebetina-InSitu-3

Looks like Cyprus need to be added to my "to visit-list"

Great shots !

Very nice pictures!!! My compliments for that! And I also like the animals that you have seen on Cyprus!

Nice pictures Andre,

it remembers me of my four trips to this island. A great experince to visit this places and found this real big and fat vipers there. But like you shown here, I´ve never seen so much DOR´s before, most of them was M.l.lebetina males. In springtime, there are allways in hunt for the females and cross roads everywhere. The landscapes there are fascianting, specialy the Troodos area and there soroundings.

Brilliant post and photos! The blackred colubrid at the end was spectacular!
Also the vipers are something else!

Hallo André,

Schön zu sehen das du guten erfolg hattest auf deinen Urlaub. Die lebetina's sind wirklich eindrucksvoll! Möchte mich nochmals bedanken das Frank und Ich dir besuchen könnten.

Grüßen aus Hoogeveen/Niederlande.

Great, great pictures Andre,
wish I could shoot like that. It seems I just don't get the hang of it.
Andre, is it possible that you could show us a full body pictures of that FAT red headed Macrovipera?
Manny thanks,
Arjan.

@ All - thanks Smile

@ Andre

Thanks, it was a pleasure to meet you. You and Frank are always welcome Smile

@ Arjan

Here are a few more full body shots of 3 lebetinas

Cyprus ´12 V5a6d8ep

Very nice Andre, i really need to visit Cyprus soon. It has been on my to do list for far to long now.

Did you find it hard to find the vipers ? I have heard some really sad things about the population.

Regards
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

at the begining iof the trip it was difficult to find the vipers, because we dont know which weather conditions and daytime was the best (it is quite very different to search in middle/north europa for aspis berus and that stuff and then in near east macroviperas). So we found our first lebetina in the hot midday sun complete out and basking in rocky habitat...the next days we found much more basking in the early morning in high grass near fields...so if you know where to search it is not very difficult...so we found all in all 12 (90-126 cm long specimen) alive lebetinas and 2 or 3 DOR lebetinas.

I think they have a nice live there, ok the natives hate them (most - they show us how to kill them best Laughing

) but there are much habitats without humans where they have space, food and all what they need.

Ok that is nice to hear.

I find it quite strange that an endemic snake that only exist on one island isn't more protected than it is. And to my knowledge there haven't been any "conservation" work done.

I mean it is about the same threat's to M.l.lebetina as it is to M.schweizeri (the big picture).
On Milos there have been an ongoing project with M.schweizeri for many years, i think M.l.lebetina deserve the same attention.

Just my 2 cents.

And of course i can have missed if there is an ongoing project on Cyprus.

Regards
Daniel

Thank you very much for this photo report, we were able to travel because of you..

Regards..

Thank you Andre,
beautifull pictures thanks for sharing.

great pictures! must have been a very nice trip!! Picture 5,14 and 18, Wich species are they?
My guess is whip snakes but wich ones?

best regards

Thanks !

Picture 5 & 18 are Dolichophis jugularis

Picture 14 is Telescopus fallax cyprianus