Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes

This little female has been a problematic feeder but seems (I hope) to have settled and is doing good.

She is a nippy little girl and sloughed this afternoon.

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes 537127109_dixzx-XL

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes 537127109_dixzx-XL

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes 537127081_s3V63-XL

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes 537127071_tffqo-XL

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes 537127090_2WWak-XL

And yes not *hit she is this colour!

W O W ! nice colored animal

Very nice!

very nice colored viper and nice pictures too:-)

As usual, Greame.. Nice shots!

Very good photos!
Cheers,
Guenter

Wow! Are they always this colour from Lake Scutari?

Haha I cant seem to change to another topic. This snake is beautiful

Hi Graeme,
a beautiful specimen and very nice fotos.
Hello Rob:
They can have any colour and pattern that you can find in the species V. ammodytes. I´m doing fieldwork there for 39 years now (I returned just recently from there) and I can tell you that such bright orange ones are quite rare in nature. Most specimens are grey or brownish but the percentage of colourful ones is higher than in most other populations of V. amm. You can even find green ones (much rarer than red or orange ones) and higher in the mountains blue ones (extremely rare, I have only seen 2 really blue ones in my life).

Rainer

Amazing specimen !

I really would love to have ammos looking like that in my own collection.

Regards
Daniel

Hi Rainer.

Very interesting, do you have any pictures of the greens and blues, i'd love to see them

All the best,
Al

Hi Al,
I posted a foto of one that has green (among other colours) in Mario Lutz´s topic "Vipera ammodytes (scutari see) did anyone have picture?" on May 23th 2008 in this forum.
I have no foto of a blue one. I found those many years ago in the seventies and did not take them with me. At that time I had a Nikon camera... that was too heavy and bulky to carry it wizh me in the field, especially in Montenegro with rocks and shrub almost everywhere.
Now I have a female that is yellowish green. I´ll make a foto and post it when she will have shed.

Best wishes,
Rainer

Hi Rainer,
Wow! Absolutely fantastic, such variation there. I also like the black and white male that you posted a picture of.

Many thanks

All the best,
Al

Thanks Rainer that is really interesting. I have seen some nice silver and black specimens with my own eyes before but no other colours, I didn not even know they were so variable.

Hi Al, hi Rob,

their variability and some other features are the reason why I am so fascinated by this species.
Yes, I also think the black and white one is a beauty. and it was electryfying to see him there with only green around. I took the foto like I found him, he did not even realize that I was there. He was crawling "home" to his rock-wall with a big meal in his belly.

all the best,
Rainer

The green female shed and I got a foto. I could not get the entire snakes on the foto, the rest of their bodies is behind a rock and i did not want to disturb them. But i think you can see the greenish colour. I have seen even greener ones.

She is together in her terrarium with two other gravid females from the same population in the Scutari-Lake area in Montenegro. The one underneath is her mother (her father is the greenish male I posted last year), the orange female is not related to her. She is gravid from a dark-red male.

best wishes,
Rainer
Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes Img_7110

Lake Scutari Locality Vipera ammodytes ammodytes Img_7110

Hi Rainer,
Lovely looking animals! I look forward to seeing the offspring when born Smile

Many thanks,
Al

Rainer Fesser

Do you have any habitat pictures from the area around the lake and on the lake itself ?

Regards
Daniel

Well thanks for sharing Rainer, you have really peaked my interest in these animals. I love when these colours occur naturally.
What do you think determines the difference in colour?

Very nice animal,

As a Greek hobbyst I 'm in love with ammodytes meridionalis...
But scutari is more and more beautiful does any one knows breeder of them in europe and which is the price for a pair of them?

@George, I got a 1.2 group consisting of a Steel gray/black male , Brown yellow female and a yellow female from Lake Scutari for 100€ in houten last year.

Thank you for the infos Michael.

She's a screamer, Graeme. Thanks for sharing. She's a gorgeous example of ammodytes.

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