Distribution of three Vipera species in the Republic of Serbia
Rasprostranjenje tri vrste roda Vipera u Republici Srbiji
2019
Authors:
Tomović, LjiljanaAnđelković, Marko
Krizmanić, Imre
Ajtić, Rastko
Urošević, Aleksandar
Labus, Nenad
Simović, Aleksandar
Maričić, Marko
Golubović, Ana
Ćorović, Jelena
Paunović, Ana
Jović, Danko
Krstić, Milivoj
Lakušić, Margareta
Džukić, Georg
Document Type:
Article (Published version)
,
© 2019 Natural History Museum in Belgrade
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract:
In the most recent comprehensive distribution of vipers in the western and
central Balkans, 210 precise records (146 UTM cells) for all three species of vipers
(Vipera ammodytes, V. berus, and V. ursinii) were presented for Serbia. During the
past eight years, extensive field investigations within the ongoing conservation
projects in our country (e.g. Ecological Networks and Natura 2000), significantly
increased the number of faunistic records, which urged the need for publishing the
updated distribution of all three species of vipers in Serbia. We collected a total of
770 records of vipers in Serbia, of which literature data constitute 49.4% (n = 380)
and unpublished field data made as much as 50.6% (n = 390) of the records. As
expected, V. ammodytes was the best-represented species, accounting for 614 records (79.8%), followed by V. berus with 145 records (18.8%), and V. ursinii
with 11 records (1.4%). Results of the present study showed that in our country
there are three areas crucially important for the diversity of vipers, with all three
species present: Koritnik Mt. and Žljeb Mt. in Metohija, as well as Mokra Gora Mt.
in south-western Serbia. We also found 25 10×10 km UTM squares with sympatry
of two species of vipers. The designation of areas of special importance for vipers
(e.g. Mokra Gora Mt., Dukat Mt., Besna kobila Mt., Kamena Gora Mt.) should be
one of the priority actions for improvement of their conservation statuses in our
country.
Keywords:
Vipera ammodytes; V. berus; V. ursinii; distribution ranges; sympatry; conservationSource:
Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, 2019, 12, 217-242Funding / projects:
- Ministries of Education, Sciences and Technological Development and of Environment Protection of the Republic of Serbia (grant no. 401-00-00243/2014-08)
- Rufford Small Grants Foundation (grants nos. 20507-B, 25196-1)
- Monitoring of Amphibians and Reptiles of the “Kopaonik” National Park” (grants nos. 1124/2018, 1895/2019)