Romanian field trips(very long post)

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Arachnosquire
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May 19, 2009
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Hi guys!
These are some photos from field trips that I have made this year in Romania(most of them are near Brasov)
Lissotriton vulgaris



Lissotriton montandoni



Ichtyosaura alpestris






Alpestris+montandonii


Bufo bufo








Bombina variegata






Bufo viridis









Rana temporaria








Tadpoles


Lacerta agilis















Zootoca vivipara








Emys orbicularis



Natrix tessellata






Melanistic specimen


Lacerta viridis






Natrix natrix


Melanistic specimen


Pelophylax kl. esculentus









Pelophylax ridibundus




Pelophylax lessonae


The only podarcis tauricus I have ever seen


Anguis fragilis

 

Wadew

Arachnobaron
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Awsome variety of critters! If I had to choose a favorite it would be the Bufo viridis. What a sight man. great to share with us, Thank you.

Wade
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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Thank you!Bufo viridis is my favourite too,(altough they are very common in Romania,in Brasov is the rarest toad) and the viviparous lizard(zootoca vivipara).
 

Herpetologydude

Arachnosquire
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Feb 16, 2010
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Awesome pictures! Didn't realize how diverse the native herpto-fuana was in Romania! Didn't realize you guys had the Bombina genus over there either! Awesome stuff!
 

MaartenSFS

Arachnobaron
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Thanks for sharing. I love the water salamanders, the Bombina species (I used to own three orientals), and the lizards. You should have some species of adders too, yes? O, and I was surprised to see turtles.
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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Thank you guys!
We have 2 bombina species:bombina variegata and bombina bombina.In fact,variegata is the most common herp in our country,you can find them everywhere from altitudes of 200 meters to 2000 meters high and they are VERY adaptable,you can find them even in the urban places from big cities.
And yes,we have some vipers too....vipera berus(common adder),vipera ammodytes(nose-horned viper),vipera ursinii(orsini's viper) and maybe vipera renardi(steppe viper).
I love the variety of herps in my country,but,unfortunately,I have found just 19 species(from a total of 43).But this year I advanced in field herping(I found 5 more species above last years).
 

Herpetologydude

Arachnosquire
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That's absolutely awesome,

I enjoy seeing how widespread some of the genre are across sea's even. Seeing all those Rana and Bufo specimens, its just very cool to me!

Seeing the convergent evolution of the Natrix genus compared to the states own Nerodia is very cook in itself!

Sorry I get all giddy about this kind of stuff! LOL
 

tarcan

Arachnoking
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excent series, nice to see your local fauna... very nice animals and great pictures, thank you for sharing them!

Martin
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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Cheers guys,it was my pleasure to share them with you!:D
Today I was on field and I found lots of juvenilles...
Bufo viridis

Bombina variegata


Ichtyosaura alpestris

Bufo bufo adult male



Their habitat:

I also found many sand lizards(lacerta agilis),a grass snake(natrix natrix) and few common frogs(rana temporaria),but I didn't take any pictures of them.
I wish you all the best,
Florin!
 

MaartenSFS

Arachnobaron
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I'm so glad to hear that the environment there is good enough to support such a wide variety of species. A Bombina species being the most common is fortunate indeed. Having lived in Europe, Asia, and North America, it's interesting to see what species dominate in each. This also has to do with human impact over the centuries.

For example, turtles are fairly common here in North America whilst in China they are on the verge of extinction in the wild. Lizards are commonly found in peoples' houses there, though, and only occasionally find their way into wine. In northern North America vipers don't make it up that high due to a lack of denning sites and recent glaciation perhaps, but the common adder is found all over Europe, almost. The garter snake ranges all over north America all the way to Alaska, the furthest north of any snake, I believe. In many places skinks are the most common lizards seen but in Europe it's often cooler-looking species like those in the genus Lacerta. I could swear that I have seen anoles, common to southern North America, in China.

Anyways, sorry for the long rant. Good luck on your quest to "catch 'em all".
 

VinceG

Arachnobaron
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Apr 5, 2010
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Really nice pictures! Always fun to see the reptiles and amphibians of other countries!
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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Thanks!
@MaartenSFSI like to associate the european species with north american ones...for example,I associate the aquatic natrix spp.(natrix tessellata,natrix maura) with nerodia spp. and the semiaquatic one(natrix natrix) with thamnophis spp. due to their behaviour and also due to their appearance;european bufo spp.(bufo bufo,bufo viridis )with american bufo spp.(bufo americanus,bufo debilis);european tree frogs with american ones etc.
P.S. bufo debilis is now anaxyrus debilis(I love these small toads)???
 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
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Thanks for sharing the under-appreciated newts! Lots of physical similarities with our natives on this side of the pond.
 

MaartenSFS

Arachnobaron
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Thanks!
@MaartenSFSI like to associate the european species with north american ones...for example,I associate the aquatic natrix spp.(natrix tessellata,natrix maura) with nerodia spp. and the semiaquatic one(natrix natrix) with thamnophis spp. due to their behaviour and also due to their appearance;european bufo spp.(bufo bufo,bufo viridis )with american bufo spp.(bufo americanus,bufo debilis);european tree frogs with american ones etc.
P.S. bufo debilis is now anaxyrus debilis(I love these small toads)???
I agree with you that there are similar species filling an ecological niche in most of the northern hemisphere. Strange, though, that turtles don't make it as far north in Western Europe, even with the mild climate. Did we eat them all? In China most have been eaten and I wouldn't venture to guess how far north they reach there. Snakes and, especially, lizards reach very far north there. And on the invertebrate side of things why don't scorpions reach as far north in North America as in Europe or China?

My favourite North American frog species is Hyla versicolor. In Europe Hyla arborea and others fill the role. The tree frogs in China, also including genus Hyla species, were brilliantly coloured. One specimen I found looked like the red-eyed tree frog of the Neotropics. Toads there and in Europe looked rather similar and most that I have seen were Bufo. They seemed to get A LOT bigger in South China, though.
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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At the part with turtle eating...few years ago,on the Black Sea coast I found thousands of european pond terrapins(emys orbicularis).Now,in that places I am lucky if I can find 3 or 4/day.Why???Because some vietnamese people (nothing personal) that work on romanian coastline "adventured" in turtles habitat and catch them all;luckily some escaped,but very few(this is the case of many other herps,including dice snakes,edible frogs,marsh frogs).
I don't know about Northern Europe,but in Romania many people kill the herps from pleasure,or,if they see a snake they see "satan",and must kill it. :wall:
Sadly,this is the world we live in.:barf:
 

MaartenSFS

Arachnobaron
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Unfortunately this is the case in many parts of the world. Asia is the worst, where most people have no respect for nature, or even each other. Luckily there terrain prohibits some of the destruction:

 

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
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For the above poster:

You must have met at least over 1.5 billion of the people there to make such a statement.

To the OP:

Great pictures and thanks for sharing.
 

LovePets

Arachnosquire
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Cheers!
I hope I will update this topic if I will have enough time to go for field herping in one of the greatest habitats in Romania next week!
 

MaartenSFS

Arachnobaron
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For the above poster:

You must have met at least over 1.5 billion of the people there to make such a statement.

To the OP:

Great pictures and thanks for sharing.
Not necessary. Lived there for over four years and the evidence was plentiful. Also, most just means 51% or more so this is rather vague but disturbing nonetheless.
 
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