Historical and new amphibian and reptile findings in the town of Smederevo – what has changed?

Abstract

The town of Smederevo is of considerable historical significance for Serbian batrachology and herpetology. Three amphibian species were, for Serbia, first time detected there – Danube crested newt (Triturus dobrogicus), Balkan spadefoot toad (Pelobates balcanicus) and Pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae). One of the rare lowland occurrences of Adder (Vipera berus) was also mentioned there. Still, during the second half of the XX century, Smederevo became an important industrial hub and went through considerable urbanization and habitat degradation. Surface waters were especially severely affected, with changed water regimes (parts of the waterbed of the Jezava River were filled in) and pollution by sewage and industrial waste. Consequently, some of the amphibians and reptiles published for Smederevo are, by now, present only as old (pre-1993) literature records. That is the case of the Danube crested newt, Fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra), Balkan spadefoot toad and Adder, the latter being declared locally extinct. The three amphibian species could still be expected in the remaining habitat fragments – since being very secretive, they could be hard to detect. Still, in the literature, some were denoted as “common”. Fire salamander was reported from the habitats in the centre of town. Those habitats have since been obliterated by construction. On the other hand, human activities had led to the introduction of some alien species – Kotschyi’s gecko (Mediodactylus kotschyi) and Slider turtle (Trachemys scripta ssp.). Also, the most recent data revealed the presence of two previously unrecorded species for Smederevo – a citizen’s observation of the Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) and the author’s own finding of the Common spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus). Confirmation of some other potentially present species could be expected in the future, with the increased field effort.Future efforts should be concentrated on finding possible remaining enclaves of the mentioned native species and, if possible, protecting their habitats.