Hi!! Hello! Dane here. I have a question that might be really dumb and silly- but basically the area I live in, at least when I was a kid (it’s been a while since I’ve gone lookin’) has a lot of firben (not sure which kind sorry) who are all-black? I’m aware that melanistic reptiles and amphibians aren’t that rare but I always wondered what this specific species of firben was. But since they were all all-black I could never figure it out!
All I can tell is I live near a pond with tall vegetation, far from other large water sources, and the lil guys were 4-8cm long?
Oh and it’s in Jylland!! Do you have any good places for looking up these little fellas? I’m sure they were just a really common type of firben that had a bit of a limited gene pool and for some reason black was advantageous in the little pond, but I vaguely remember the texture of their skin and such and it’s been buggin me for YEARS! So if you have anything to help me end my search: thank you 😭
Hej! This is probably a population of melanistic Zootoca vivipara, given the habitat you describe This might indeed have been a coincidence caused by population drift in a small population. It wouldn't even need to be beneficial, just not actively detrimental.
