Hungarian meadow viper

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Hungarian meadow viper
Hungarian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis)

Hungarian meadow viper ( Vipera ursinii rakosiensis )

Systematics
Superfamily : Adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea)
Family : Vipers (Viperidae)
Subfamily : Real vipers (Viperinae)
Genre : Real otters ( Vipera )
Type : Meadow viper ( Vipera ursinii )
Subspecies : Hungarian meadow viper
Scientific name
Vipera ursinii rakosiensis
Mehely , 1893

The Hungarian meadow viper ( Vipera ursinii rakosiensis ) is an endemic subspecies of the meadow viper ( Vipera ursinii ) in parts of Hungary and Romania . It is one of the most endangered animal taxa in the Pannonian Plain . Their status from the IUCN (as "critically endangered" endangered ) specified.

features

The meadow otter is considered to be the smallest venomous snake in Europe, but the Hungarian meadow otter is the largest of all its subspecies. The males stay smaller and slimmer than the females. The largest male measured during a breeding program in Hungary had a total length of 47.1 cm, the longest female reached 59.8 cm.

In addition to the different sizes, the sexes can also be differentiated based on the ratio of tail length to total length. In males this is on average around one eighth, in females around one tenth. The underside of the tail of the males is covered with 30 to 37 large horn scales, the subcaudalia , the females have only 23 to 28 such shields.

The basic color of the subspecies is grayish to yellowish-brownish. There is a to the on her back vipers reminiscent, species-specific zigzag pattern, which is accompanied by the side of similar patterns. The gray underside of the snake is interspersed with whitish tips. There is also a so-called "beany" type, in which the back pattern has broken up into small spots reminiscent of beans.

Like the other subspecies of the meadow otter, the Hungarian meadow viper is difficult to distinguish from the adder ( Vipera berus ), but there are practically no sympatric occurrences of adder and Hungarian meadow viper. On closer examination it is noticeable that the meadow otters only have 19 rows of dorsal scales in the back of the body. The reduction from 21 rows of scales in the neck area to 19 rows begins with most of the subspecies in the first quarter of the body, but with the Hungarian meadow otter only in the second quarter. This also distinguishes the meadow otter from the similar steppe viper ( Vipera renardi ), in which the reduction in back scales to 19 rows only begins in the second half of the body.

Further distinguishing features from the adder are the smaller eyes of the Hungarian meadow viper, whose horizontal diameter corresponds approximately to the distance between the eyes and the nostrils. The Hungarian meadow viper has a smaller head compared to the neck than the adder, and its snout is a little more pointed.

distribution and habitat

The distribution area of ​​the Hungarian meadow otter originally comprised an area that stretched from easternmost Austria via Hungary and Romania to Bulgaria , but it has become extinct in most parts of this area. The two formerly contiguous areas with large populations, which were in the Hanság (German: Wasen) south of Lake Neusiedl and in the Great Hungarian Plain , have now disintegrated into several small sub-areas. While the western populations mainly live on wet meadows, in moors or on pastures, the population in the lowlands inhabits the dry steppes of Small Humania ( kiskunság , Bács-Kiskun county ). In 2002 a population was rediscovered in the eastern part of the lowlands in Romania (Transylvania).

Way of life

Like most European reptiles, the Hungarian meadow viper overwinters. In mid-October it looks for a dry, frost-free hiding place (mostly an abandoned rodent den), which the snake does not leave until April. Young animals feed primarily on jumpers (Orthoptera), while adult individuals also eat rodents , lizards and nest- young birds. The Hungarian meadow viper sheds its skin three times a year: in spring, in summer and just before its winter rest period.

Reproduction and development

Mating takes place in April. Depending on the weather and the food supply, the young snakes are born around 100 days later from July to early September. They develop in transparent, soft egg capsules and often hatch in the womb ( ovoviviparia ). The number of eggs per clutch varies between 4 and 16. It usually increases with the age of the female. The 12-16 cm long young animals that hatch immediately and already bear the markings of their parents, molt relatively soon. In the first year, moulting takes place monthly, with increasing age less and less.

Existence and endangerment

The subspecies is mainly threatened by the destruction of its habitat, but the reasons for the decline are still not fully understood. The total population in the game reserves is a maximum of 500 individuals, but it can be higher. In 2004 the Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület (MME) started a protection program with 50 percent support from a LIFE project, as part of which a station was built in the Kiskunsági Nemzeti Park to protect the Hungarian meadow otters. This is under the supervision of the "Council for the Protection of the Hungarian Meadow Otter" in cooperation with the natural science faculty of the Loránd Eötvös University and the Budapest Zoological and Botanical Gardens . There is also breeding in the Kunpeszér Conservation Center of captured individuals for resettlement. The offspring has been successful so far, in September 2010 there were already more than 700 animals in the center, more than probably in the wild. The main focus of the program, however, continues to be on restoring the habitat and informing the local population. As Hungary's only endemic vertebrate, the Hungarian meadow viper has been protected since 1974 and has been increasingly protected since 1988.

Systematics and taxonomy

Within the family of the vipers (Viperidae) the meadow otter belongs to the genus of the real otters ( Vipera ). The development of individual species took place since the Upper Miocene , for which there is a lot of fossil evidence. With the beginning of the Ice Age in the Quaternary , individual distribution areas of Vipera ursinii were separated from each other and several subspecies developed. According to The Reptile Database , the following are currently recognized :

  • Vipera ursinii anatolica - Eiselt & Baran, 1970 (status unclear), alternatively own species ( Vipera anatolica )
  • Vipera ursinii graeca - Nilson & Andrén 1988, alternatively own species ( Vipera graeca )
  • Vipera ursinii macrops - Méhely, 1911
  • Vipera ursinii moldavica - Nilson, Andrén & Joger 1993
  • Vipera ursinii rakosiensis - Méhely, 1893
  • Vipera ursinii ursinii - Bonaparte, 1835

However, ITIS does not currently recognize any of the above-mentioned subspecies. The individual subspecies are outwardly difficult to distinguish from one another because of the great variability in color and drawing. Nilson and Andrén revised the system in 2001 based on biochemical factors. The electrophoretic comparison of serum - albumin rendered for individual sub-species, as well as for the Hungarian meadow viper, similar major differences as between species.

Research history

The Hungarian meadow viper was already mentioned by Géza Entz (1842–1919) in his work “Adalékok Erdély herpetológiájához” (supplements to the herpetology of Transylvania), but it was still listed among the adders here. Lajos Méhelÿ began researching the subspecies in 1892. Based on his research, he published an essay in the Zoologischer Anzeiger on May 29, 1893, in which he described the Hungarian meadow viper as a subspecies of the adder under the name Vipera berus var. Rakosiensis . George Albert Boulenger , the herpetologist at the British Museum , who also had some specimens of these otters from the area around Vienna, noticed the great differences between the nominate form of the adder and the newly described subspecies and considered it as a separate species under the name Vipera rakosiensis to lead. A little later, however, Boulenger came across in the literature in a very similar way from Abruzzo , for which Bonaparte had proposed the name Pelias ursinii in 1835 . Boulenger classified it as Vipera ursinii among the real otters and expanded Bonaparte's description based on Méhely's work on Vipera berus var. Rakosiensis and on the basis of his own studies. He then exchanged letters with Méhely, whom he was quickly able to convince that it was a separate species. But only after Boulenger had sent him pictures of the otters found on the Gran Sasso did Méhely accept the view that both the mountain forms and the flat land forms belonged to the species Vipera ursinii .

History of the name

The name "Otter von Rákos" (rákosi vipera) goes back to the zoologist and first describer Lajos Méhely, who chose this name because it was often to be found on the Rákos field along the Rákos stream in what is now Budapest. In the 1950s, the snake was renamed to "fallow otter" (parlagi vipera) for political reasons, as its name was reminiscent of the then General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mátyás Rákosi (actually: Mátyás Rosenfeld). However, this name is misleading, as this snake does not live on fallow land. In this regard, the English name meadow viper or the German name Wiesenotter are better. Today the original name of Méhely is used again. The vernacular between the Danube and the Tisza knows the name "sand otter ", which is not identical to the European horned otter ( Vipera ammodytes ), also called sand otter .

literature

  • Werner Kammel: On the situation of the meadow viper, Vipera ursinii rakosiensis (Méhely, 1894) (Squamata: Serpentes: Viperidae) in Lower Austria. Herpetozoa, 5, pp. 3-11, Vienna 1992
  • Werner Kammel: On the situation of the meadow viper, Vipera ursinii rakosiensis (Méhely, 1894), and the Pannonian mountain lizard, Lacerta vivipara pannonica Lac & Kluch, 1968, in Burgenland (Austria). Herpetozoa, 5, pp. 109-118, Vienna 1992
  • Ljiljana Tomović & Georg Džukić: On the possible presence of meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis) in FR Yugoslavia. Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) For the Hungarian Meadow Viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis), 5. – 8. November 2001, The Budapest Zoo, Workshop Report, pp. 74–75, Budapest 2001 PDF (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ European Reptile & Amphibian Specialist Group 1996. Vipera ursinii ssp. rakosiensis . In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4 (accessed March 23, 2011)
  2. ^ A b c d Hungarian meadow viper Life-project: Conservation of Hungarian meadow viper [1] Online, accessed on March 23, 2011
  3. ^ A b George Albert Boulenger : On a little-known European Viper, Vipera ursinii Bonap. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 40, pp. 596-599, 1893
  4. ↑ Oliver G. Dely and Ulrich Joger: Vipera (Pelias) ursinii BONAPARTE, 1835 - meadow otter . In: Ulrich Joger, Nikolaus Stümpel (Hrsg.): Handbook of Reptiles and Amphibians in Europe, Volume 3 / II B: Snakes (Serpentes) III. Aula, 2005, p. 375 ISBN 978-3-89104-617-3
  5. ↑ a b Otthonra találtak a diktatúrában átkeresztelt viperák - Origo , from September 12, 2010
  6. ^ Saving Vipera ursinii rakosiensis in Transylvania. Centrul de initiativa pentru Mediu, 2009
  7. ↑ Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület (MME)
  8. ^ Paul Edgar & David R. Bird: Action Plan for the Conservation of the Meadow Viper (Vipera ursinii). Document prepared for the 26th meeting of the Standing Committee, Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats in Europe, 2006, p. 11 PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wdm.nl  
  9. ^ Vipera ursinii in The Reptile Database
  10. ↑ Bayram Göçmen, John Mulder, Mert Kariş, Anıl Oğuz (2014): The poorly known Anatolian Meadow Viper, Vipera anatolica: new morphological and ecological data. Herpetologica Romanica 8: 1-10. (Article No. 141101).
  11. ↑ Edvárd Mizsei, Daniel Jablonski, Stephanos A. Roussos, Maria Dimaki, Yannis Ioannidis, Göran Nilson, Zoltán T. Nagy (2017): Nuclear markers support the mitochondrial phylogeny of Vipera ursinii - renardi complex (Squamata: Viperidae) and status species for the Greek meadow viper. Zootaxa 4227 (1): 75-88, doi : 10.11646 / zootaxa.4227.1.4
  12. ↑ RW McDiarmid, JA Campbell, T. Touré: Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League, 1999 ISBN 1-893777-01-4
  13. ^ Vipera ursinii at ITIS
  14. ^ G. Nilson and C. Andrén: The meadow and steppe vipers of Europe and Asia - the Vipera (Acridophaga) ursinii complex. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 47, pp. 87-267, 2001
  15. ^ G. Nilson: Eurasian vipers and the systematics of the Vipera ursinii complex. Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) For the Hungarian Meadow Viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis), 5. – 8. November 2001, The Budapest Zoo, Workshop Report, pp. 74–75, Budapest 2001, p. 65 PDF (English)
  16. ↑ Lajos Méhely: The adder (Vipera berus L.) in Hungary. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 16, pp. 186-192, 1893
  17. ↑ Kovács Tibor (ed.): A rákosi vipera múltja, jelene, jövője. Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert, Budapest, 2001 ISBN 9-6300-8339-6

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