Iberian herping 2019: Vipers

This year 2020 is going to be the "year with no spring" for us here in Spain, as the movement restrictions for the covid epidemy are making impossible to go herping on the field. Because of that, I have decided to make a series of posts relating my herping experiences on last year, 2019, in my homeland Iberian Peninsula. I'm going to make one post for one group of herps (vipers, colubrids, lizards, amphibians) and probably some other with birds, depending on how long this lockdown lasts. 

This post will be dedicated to the vipers, perhaps the most wanted animals for most herpers here in Spain. We have three viper species on the Iberian Peninsula, all three belonging to the genus Vipera. I have the luck to live close to all three species here in the Castilla y León community. Now I'm going to talk separately about my observations of each one last year. Click on the photographs to see them in full.

The seoane's or cantabrian viper (Vipera seoanei) is the species which lives closer to me, as they can be found even inside the parks of my current residence in León. However, here is not a very abundant species as it is on more humid places. The seoane's vipers of León city and the surroundings are part of the sub-Cantabric populations, the southernmost of the species area. This form has been classified as subspecies cantabrica, but it seems that this taxon is not valid in light of genetic evidence. Meanwhile, the vipers here show the "cantabrica" morphotype, similar to that of the asp viper, with crossbars and a light green colouration. Their venom is also stronger, as the conditions in this mediterranean zone are not the ideal for the species.

Most vipers I've found here have been on an abandoned well on the outskirts of the city, where they tend to fall. I've rescued some juveniles and a big female along the year. I only found other viper in the city area outside this well, a good-looking adult male. Some of this observations were made with my friends Alberto Benito and Javier Burgos. 

Along with this vipers from near my city, I also could observe some other seoanei on a brief trip to Somiedo Natural Park, on Asturias, with my friend Carlos Ortega. The main target was the brown bear (which we finally saw) but on the central parts of the day we do some herping and we found four subadult vipers, which the last escaped with no photographs. All with the "classic" pattern, a huge dorsal stripe with crossbars, but one showed the "cantabrica" pattern, crossbars with thin dorsal stripe. This species is my favourite among all iberian vipers for their high morphological variability, with five or six pattern types. There are no two equal!

The last two vipers of this species I've seen last year were perhaps the most special, during a trip to Picos de Europa, also in Asturias, with my friend Pablo Ruiz. We first found one very cool melanistic individual, which was on shed and very agressive. Later, I found my personal highlight for that day, an adult with the "bilineata" pattern: two golden stripes on a dark body. Probably my coolest iberian viper of the year, but my flash was out of battery so I'm not very happy with the photographs I took.

The lataste's viper (Vipera latastei) is an iberian endemic and in spite of being widespread along all mediterranean Spain, is a scarce and elusive species, always hard to encounter. The first individual on 2019 was found with some friends on a excursion near a stream in my natal Valencia province, where the species is really difficult to find (this was the first one I see there in my whole life). A very beautiful subadult specimen, which allow some good photographs.

I did three excursions to the Burgos area along the year to find vipers. On the third one with some friends we found a lataste's viper. It was a very gorgeous one, orange with a huge black dorsal stripe. One of the coolest patterns I have ever seen on this species, even on photographs. Sadly for us, it was on shed.

The last of the iberian vipers is the asp viper (Vipera aspis zinnikeri), the species which lives further from me. On my expeditions to Burgos in 2019 I could enjoy four individuals, all females. Is worth noting a very successful evening with Alberto Benito, when we found three vipers in less than 20 minutes, two of them very big females. I also could see a juvenile of this species on a trip to the Pyrenees on summer. The adult male of the asp viper is a nemesis for me, I hoped that on 2020 I could finally encounter one, but now I doubt it... 

Apart from the three species, in certain parts of Spain where the lataste's and asp viper co-occur, it is possible to find intermediate vipers, hybrids of the two species. That could be the case of one individual we found in Burgos, which show intermediate traits. A pointed snout and a zig-zag marking like a lataste's, but a dorsal stripe like an asp. We found it on a place where hybrids are know to occur.