Are Dahl's Whip Snake found on Mljet,Croatia?
by Richard Cox - 12/6/2010 4h34Hi people,I was searching through the web,looking for information on herps found on the beautiful island of Mljet,Croatia,after spending some time there,and came across this site,hopefully you can help me educate myself further on a subject i have more than a passing interest in.My knowledge of Amphibians and Reptiles is incredibly limited,I am from Ireland after all...and we're not entirely blessed with herps here!but I photographed the majority of what I encountered while on Mljet,accidentally,as i had no intention of disturbing any habitat.I will upload photos in the future,all of various lizards,wall,glass and others,to find out specific names.On to the main reason for this post though,are dahl's whip snakes found on that island?I had an excellent chance to take a picture of the snake in question,but as it made a really brief appearance in between the two lizards i was watching,then disappeared again just as quickly(I had the frame,I had the focus,just had to press the button...I'm still annoyed with myself,the picture would have been great).My knowledge is limited,and i only seen it from the neck up,very slender neck,wide head,big eyes,grey with black markings.The lizards I was watching,different species,were just about to have a territorial dispute(moving confidently toward each other,so that's my guess),until he made his appearance,and I'm not sure if he was surprised by my presence(and I moved) or the fact that two lizards were there,and he mis-struck.The lizards forgot all conflict at this point and ran,in different diretions,but ended up on the same tree,directly behind and above the snake appearance.Anyway,was following the eyes of these two nearly aggressors as they forgot all differences and clung side by side on the tree,staring down toward the attack,but i never seen the snake again.Sorry for this long winded account,but to be honest,this was a realy cool experience for me,especially being from a place where this would never happen.Anyway what snake did I see?It's hard to find a site that tells you what lives on this specific island.
Mario Schweiger |

