I haven't posted here for a long time, so to "blow new life" in my account, I'll start with a short report of a herping trip me, my father and Mark Bakkers made in spring 2008. We travelled to southern Italy, more specifically we flew to Sicilia to observe some endemic herps, and then crossed the Messina strait to Calabria were we looked for two salamanders which had fascinated us for years.
First Sicilia and a bit of Calabria. Altough we went in late april, spring was already over in Sicilia, temperatures were high and the landscape was somewhat dissapointing. Lots of agricultural fields. We failed in finding individuals in a naturalised population of Xenopus laevis, but did find some other interesting herps at the first herping site ao Hierophis viridiflavus carbonarius, a whip snake species. A mountain close to Palermo (terrible traffic btw in Palermo) delivered Bufo siculus, a relative of the African (note, not of the much closer, Italian) Green Toads. Sadly Discoglossus pictus had left the water already.
After this we crossed to Calabria. We weren't planning on driving north, so no Triturus carnifex or the glacial relict Ichtyosaura alpestris inexpectatus. Our first findings were eggs of Rana italica in a cistern. After this we arrived in a beautiful climax forest with huge Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba; I've been in Bialowieza prime forest in Poland but I'm tempted to say that this Calabrian forest looked more impressive.
First Sicilia and a bit of Calabria. Altough we went in late april, spring was already over in Sicilia, temperatures were high and the landscape was somewhat dissapointing. Lots of agricultural fields. We failed in finding individuals in a naturalised population of Xenopus laevis, but did find some other interesting herps at the first herping site ao Hierophis viridiflavus carbonarius, a whip snake species. A mountain close to Palermo (terrible traffic btw in Palermo) delivered Bufo siculus, a relative of the African (note, not of the much closer, Italian) Green Toads. Sadly Discoglossus pictus had left the water already.
After this we crossed to Calabria. We weren't planning on driving north, so no Triturus carnifex or the glacial relict Ichtyosaura alpestris inexpectatus. Our first findings were eggs of Rana italica in a cistern. After this we arrived in a beautiful climax forest with huge Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba; I've been in Bialowieza prime forest in Poland but I'm tempted to say that this Calabrian forest looked more impressive.