Posted by:
csoler
at Wed Jun 9 06:24:13 2004 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by csoler ]
Hi,
My name's Cyril and actually I've been living in Grenoble for 30 years and catching snakes around here for at least 20 
So, I would like to add a few precisions in response to the preceeding emails:
- Natrix maura is NEVER seen in the mountains around here. This snake leaves in water, or very close to it, in low altitude slow rivers.
- I did not know the name Zamenis longissimus, but the description is close to elaphe longissima, which I never saw at higher altitude than 800-1000 meters. It is a new classification ??. This snake is rater thin, *never stripped* (but with white spots sometimes) and approx. 1,00 to 1,50 meters long. Longer specimen have became really rare.
- Natrix tesstilia cited above does not look like anything I know. Is it a misspelling of Natrix Tessellata ? That snake is not to be seen around grenoble anyways.
- Natrix Natrix can be seen in the mountains but is rare in that habitat, since it prefers low level water areas.
In summary, your snake is most probably a Coronella Austriaca or a Vipera aspis. Most people make a confusion between the two, partly because they have exactly the same habitat, e.g, in the montains on rock piles.
Furthermore, vipera aspis may take several forms (from the one you describe to bluish/greyish stripped with black and even totally black). The form most commonly seen is well represented by the photo at http://www.lagarenne.ch/photos/VipereAspic.html
Coronella austriaca has two forms: one brown stripped with black,
and an other (very rare) light brown (orange) stripped with brown. If you saw the later, I would be glad to know where exactly
Also if you tell be where your friend saw the snake, mabe I can have a better idea.
Cheers
Cyril
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RE: Snake Sighting Near Grenoble, France - csoler, Wed Jun 9 06:24:13 2004