September herps in the Sporades – Skopelos & Alonissos

By Stamatis Kalogiannis

The period just after summer can be a very tricky herping season for Greek islands and the lowlands in the mainland – high temperatures are usually still around, heavy autumn rains have not yet arrived and most habitats remain rather barren. However, as the nights are starting to get colder and the temperatures are cooling down with time, conditions are slowly getting more ideal for finding reptiles.

This September, I set out to find some of the most common herpetofauna species occurring in the Northern Sporades islands, with special focus on squamates (lizards, snakes). Even though a very little known archipelago, the Northern Sporades islands are all very green, with gorgeous beaches, very rich wildlife and are largely untouched by tourism. They are located east of mainland Thessaly and northeast of Euboea and consist of three main islands – Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos – as well as dozens of uninhabited islets and rocky outcrops. The month was rather dry, with only a few sporadic storms, several overcast days and high temperatures, locally reaching 38 C in mid September.

Map of prospected islands

Skopelos (4th September)

Being the largest island in the archipelago, Skopelos is densely covered by pine forests and covers a total area of 96 km². When it comes to wetland habitats, the island currently has two seasonal marshes, several streams and a water reservoir which is usually dry. It is home to 9 species of reptiles and 2 species of amphibians, all of typical mediterranean origin. Skopelos was only visited once, with two main goals – catching a montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus) – which is the most abundant snake on the island and my favorite Greek snake species – and visiting the (at the time dry) lagoon of Loutsa, a small lake covered by water lilies, one of the last Pelophylax and Mauremys habitats on the island.

To my luck, Skopelos is very easily accessible by the neighboring Alonissos and it only takes a few minutes to get there with the famous flying dolphins connecting the Sporades. I arrived there at about 7AM on a relatively cool, humid day with a mainly cloudy sky, allowing me to do a short hike in the morning. I walked from the port to the farm above Agnontas bay and checked some olive groves and paths along the way. Due to the very cool weather I mainly stuck to flipping, but only found a few house geckoes (Hemidactylus turcicus), several hatchlings of the snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii) and a surprisingly low number of Erhard's wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii), reportedly described as ssp. scopelensis (now considered a synonym of ssp. ruthveni). Nevertheless, I enjoyed the view but got physically destroyed by the very hilly route. On my way back to the town I also found two old Malpolon roadkills.

View towards Agnontas bay

After returning to the town of Skopelos I took a taxi to Loutsa marsh at approximately 11AM. Unfortunately, the marsh was dry due to the very extensive drought of this year's summer but retained some moisture at the bottom. A few juvenile Balkan frogs (Pelophylax kurtmuelleri) were found under the shade of water lilies, indicating that as soon as the first heavy rains arrive they will probably re-populate the pond. As expected, no sightings of terrapins were made, neither of the Green toad (Bufotes viridis). Both terrapins and amphibians appear to be under the immediate threat of extinction on Skopelos. In addition to Pelophylax and Bufotes, the presence of the European tree frog (Hyla arborea) has yet to be confirmed (see report by Broggi 2010).

The dry Loutsa pond

Rarely seen juvenile Balkan frog (Pelophylax kurtmuelleri) from Skopelos

I then headed to the dry reservoir located north of Panormos beach. The area is surrounded by dense pine forests and a few streams and old wells, a potential breeding area for the green toad. As I was walking around the reservoir I caught a hatchling Eastern montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus), a very fierce little creature that gave me a handful of pictures and was the only in-hand snake of the trip. After that I took a taxi back to the port and returned to Alonissos.

Hatchling Malpolon insignitus

Alonissos (5th-25th September)

As I am originated from Alonissos, the third larger but quite unnoticed by mass tourism island in the archipelago, I have found most of the island's species and visited every single habitat throughout every single month. Alonissos may not be the best herping destination, as very few species live there and finding them can be extremely difficult, but the island remains very understudied, hosts some interesting herpetofauna and is, of course, the place I grew up in. Pine forests, olive orchards, maquis & phrygana shrublands, oak forests and pastures are some of the most frequent habitats on the island, with flowing or standing water being very scarce and restricted to a large water reservoir, one seasonal, coastal lagoon and very few streams. As a result, the island currently does not host any amphibians (to our knowledge?) but has a list of 10 recorded reptile species. I wrote "currently", as Pelophylax kurtmuelleri used to be present in high numbers on Alonissos but allegedly went extinct in the early 00's due to habitat destruction.

During this month, I had decided to do more herping than I usually do on the island so I mainly did afternoon/evening walks, with less early morning flipping around several locations and habitats and came up with a list of 7 species. In contrast to a month ago, the cooler temperatures allowed snakes and lizards to be on the move during the hottest parts of the day and even thermoregulate in exposed spots. Due to the early season, though, flipping objects in agricultural areas and old olive groves only provided three lizard species; Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus), Snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii) and Kotschy's gecko (Mediodactylus kotschyi), despite the morning dew that appeared in late September and was ideal for snakes to be hiding under objects.

Male Erhard's wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii ruthveni) basking on a stonewall

Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) hunting at my balcony

Stonewalls in an agricultural area; habitat of two lacertid species

Of course, the ever-present Erhard's wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii ruthveni) were observed literally everywhere, either basking on stones and logs or running between vegetation. On the other hand, only very few observations of the Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata) were made. In fact, Balkan green lizards are quite scarce on the island and are most common in olive groves and other agricultural areas. It is also an incredibly shy creature and therefore I was unable to get satisfying pictures.

Dry olive grove at central Alonissos

Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata)

Snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii)

Erhard's wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii ruthveni)

Kotschy's gecko (Mediodactylus kotschyi)

Erhard's wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii ruthveni)

When it comes to snakes, the most abundant species on Alonissos is the notorious Caspian whip snake (Dolichophis caspius), which turned out to be highly active during the afternoons and was found in a variety of habitats, either on the move, basking or crossing roads. Last but certainly not least, only one young male individual of the Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) was found crossing a dirt-road a couple of days after some heavy rainfalls. Vipers are rather abundant in barren habitats with stones and bushes but relatively difficult to find if you're not looking for them in May.