#european fauna

[herpsandbirds]

A splendid and absolutely tiny viperine grass snake (natrix maura) that I found last summer

[giulliadella]

I’m following the Instagram page of my local community and people often post about how dangerous snakes are everywhere and people must never let their kids play in grass.

Wanna see those “dangerous” snakes?

They are Aesculapian snakes (Zamenis longissimus) in 99% of the cases. And they are the most harmless snakes out there. They’re just long, so people freak out when they see them. You can easily tell them apart from venomous vipers, since they’re long, slender, the head is not triangular and they lack the very characteristic pattern of a viper.

But they are super polite! On these images my colleagues and I are holding them. They are so cute. They love to curl up around your hand and flick their tongues everywhere. We once found one who enjoyed the attention and wanted to take pictures with everyone and go from hand to hand.

I told this to people a hundred times already and they still don’t believe me. I know that fear of snakes is very common (and mostly irrational), but still. If a kid picked this thing up the worst it could get is a tiny nip. I got bitten by one of these and it’s basically like a scratch. A cat could do much more harm to you, let alone a dog.

Also these snakes are so important for the environment, since they feed on mice and rats. I bet people wouldn’t like rodents to run around everywhere. A bite of a mouse can spread deadly viruses which a snake can’t do.

So please, if you ever see this snake in Europe, don’t cause panic, don’t post about how “dangerous” it is and let it be. It’s one of the nicest animals out there and will do you literally zero harm.

[pachnidlo]

Wow.

[onuen]

Suddenly, a wild puppy appears.

[furiarossa]

Look at this adorable scaly beauty that we caught yesterday! This is a moorish gecko (Tarentola mauritanica), a pretty common species here in Italy, but still a wonderful reptile!

Did you know that these colours change in intensity according to the light? Oh, and any specimen has different pattern!

This beautiful creature is known also with other names: Salamanquesa, crocodile gecko, European common gecko, and Maurita naca gecko.

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[pachnidlo]

She was a lovely model

Vespula germanica

[pachnidlo]

Girls!

[pachnidlo]

Tromatobia lineatoria - no common name!