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I am having a great deal of difficulty in finding information on Greek snakes. I was interested in finding out if there were Venomous snakes native to the northern mountainous regions of Greece. There is a snake brown in colour that I have been told about that is believed to be venomous. I was interest in knowing if what I have heard is true, and if there was a website that I could find information on the native snakes of Greece.
Thank you

hi,

i just got the 2002 edition of arnold's field guide to european herps (princeton press, isbn 0-691-11413-7). not a bad little book, certainly worth the $25. it looks like there are 5 vipers (3 vipera, 2 macrovipera) in greece, 1 of which is widespread (v.ammodytes). v.berus and ursinii, and m.lebetina are in small areas of the north but appear to be virtually parapatric (the maps are crisp but tiny); with a locality it should be easy to say what the snake in question might be. most vipers are "brown" to some degree, so the description isn't too helpful. does the brown snake hiss like nobody's business (all my captive vipera did).

greece has a decent number of snakes, several each of clouber, natrix, elaphe, plus some others, many "brown". good luck.

some dutch and german guys have nice websites, including field info and pics. can't name them offhand, but try fishing in google. there are lots of pictures of vipers on the web (porn for herpers, ha ha).

cheers,
jimi

>>I am having a great deal of difficulty in finding information on Greek snakes. I was interested in finding out if there were Venomous snakes native to the northern mountainous regions of Greece. There is a snake brown in colour that I have been told about that is believed to be venomous. I was interest in knowing if what I have heard is true, and if there was a website that I could find information on the native snakes of Greece.
>> Thank you

Venomous Snakes

Vipera ammodytes: throughout
V. berus: at high altitudes in a few northern areas
V. ursinii: as V. berus
Vipera xanthina: isolated areas in extreme northeast (Turkish border) and islands along Turkish coast.

All these are some shade of greyish or brownish with an obvious dark zigzag on the back, and all except V. xanthina are fairly small (usually under 2 feet).

Macrovipera schweizeri (formerly part of M. lebetina): Milos group of islands - greyish or sandy coloured with more or less distinct pattern of opposing rectangles

Rear-fanged colubrids:
Malpolon monspessulanus - Montpelier snake - can cause fairly serious reactions
Telescopus fallax - cat snake - not reported to cause symptomatic bites, but relatives have been shown to carry large amounts of potent venom.

If the snake you are discussing is uniformly brown (i.e., withough a conspicuous spotted or zigzag pattern) and reasonably large, then the only venomous choice is Malpolon. Other species corresponding to the same description are Coluber caspius, Zamenis longissimus (formerly Elaphe longissima) and Elaphe quatuorlineata.

As previously noted, a serach at images.google.com should bring up plenty of photos of all of these.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

WW
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