Vipera Aspis Atra im Oberwallis

Today I discovered new places im Oberwallis for Vipera Aspis Atra, and was an excellent day cause I found 10 speciemens! It never happened to me to find so much in a couple of hours, the weather was stormy and this explains why they were all out, many animals have a strange behavior in case of storms. And I will be there soon again cause I took in picture the most beautiful specimens I ever found of this specie! Have a look at the pictures, they almost all have a kind of ''V'' or ''heart'' on the head! This was really an unbelievable day, and no lies, all those specimens were found in the same 500m2! I wish you the same luck if you practice this kind of ''herping''! thanks for having a look.

P.S. The exposition for the camera was really hard with all the clouds, I hope they are good enough!

Here is the first specimen, unbelievable patterns, was impossible to not see it in the grass :

Few meters after a young specimen very quiet :

Then as I was taking the picture a third one appeared at 1 meter and its eye was specially dark :

Still walking in the stones I found near the grass one who had a BIG digestion :

 I losed my swiss-knife so I went back on my steps and found other specimens (yes unbelievable day) here is the 1st :

Then another one in digestion :

Finally my knife refunded and... this one by taking another path to the car :

Now is the time for the most beautiful one I ever found, there's no word to express in my opinion:

Another young one appeared 10 meters of my car :

And also this one was close to the precedent as I was putting it back in a safer place far from the road :

PLEASE! Remember that all the pictures of this blog are not free for use, this takes hours, patience and a lot of practice, please don't steal this work and feel free to send me over an email if you're interested in any of this pictures, I have for sure many others of the same species! Thanks.

''Vipera Aspis Atra'' New species

Yesterday woke up early to go in wine yards near Martigny looking to find the ''Coronella Austriaca'' and ''Zamenis Longissimus'' (That both escaped me 3 times between last months and last year GRRRR)... I stop the car, take my bag and camera, the sun is just out and 2 minutes after walking I see a Vipera Aspis Atra crossing the road (without taking care if cars were arriving :P), took it for a few shots (I discovered this specimen last year at same place so I didn't took many pictures of it). Then keep walking, I met a guy on the way who give me advices for snakes in the region, very kind from him cause exactly where he said to me to go, I discovered the second specimen curled in the vegetation. No coronella for me today, I take my car to another place not far and discovered the last specimen (no Aesculapian one), a Vipera Aspis Atra again! But was a good day anyway, is better than come back with nothing in the memory card!

This is the one who crossed the road, I put it in a safe place far from cars and walkers (btw strange head from front)

Very common color and patterns

Here is the 2nd specimen found in the day, I was close to walk on it (see on the right of the page for mimicry section), the camouflage in the vegetation was really good.

The last specimen here, I tried something new with a new lens for my camera and the result is pretty bad I agree, as I was fixing the settings the Vipera escaped and I wouldn't pull it out of the brambles, it will have hurt it and cause damage. So this is the only picture I have... 

Clean energy snake :)

Vipera Aspis Atra & Berus Melanistic

 Here is a variety of color that can be found in some snake species but also in all nature, the melanistic ones! The black is dominant in the mixture of colors, many Vipers and also Colubridae adapt themselves in high altitudes to receive faster the effects of the sun, that is primordial in their lives. Not all places have this kind of populations in their biotopes, and actually I have found only the Vipera Aspis Atra and Berus with the melanistic aspect, but there is many others like the Natrix Natrix, Vipera Nikolskii, Vipera Seoani and more... Some are totally black, even the eye, but the first pictures above show a specimen with high concentration of black but not 100%, the colors are interesting, with some red on the sides... The second pictures show the Vipera Berus, with only a light color on the bottom and the red eye, this specimen was pregnant...

VIPERA ASPIS ATRA 

We can notice the white line on the side of this one, typical in the Aspis Atra

The patterns are very hard to see with the domination of black

VIPERA BERUS

Bad frame because of the aggressiveness of the specimen, non-stop moving

We can notice here the light color above

Vipera Aspis Atra

This is the Vipera Aspis Atra, a venimous snake you can find in France, Switzerland and Italy, it is a sub-specie of the Vipera Aspis, you can see many different and asymetric patterns, various colors and irregularities can vary from a valley, place to another completely. Its length is approx. 60-80 cm max. In Switzerland, the biotopes I go to find them are vineyards, old rock buildings, abandoned mountain constructions, groves, brambles. Also in plains and high in altitude such like 2800m. It is one of the rare snakes who doesn't gives birth with eggs, but finished ''baby snakes'' just like mammal does. You can see here above some difference between a specimen to another, in colors etc... but it is the same specie.

Please don't use these pictures for any private or public diffusion, copy etc... without asking me directly at : g.bovey@hotmail.com 

They are all Copyright reserved, and understand that this is the result of hours of work, 

search and patience. Thank you for your interest.