REPTILES

Other than a small unidentified lizard that "got away" at Huayang Village, the only herps encountered on this November trip was a remarkable concentration of snakes that we have tentatively considered to be adders, possibly a Chinese relative of the European Adder Vipera berus. We were not far from Foping Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains, at perhaps 6000' elev. [~1800m], and just below the snow line, when there was a snake on the road (above and just below, left). It seemed to be lethargic but aggressive (just below, right). Then, looking along the side of the road where a talus slope ran down to a river, we spotted more than 40 others! They occurred in a variety of colors — brown (like the one on the road), gray (second row below, left; the predominate color), and even yellowish (second row below, right) — but all seemed the same basic size and shape. We assume they were all the same species. We hypothesize it was a pre-hibernating gathering of snakes that will den together soon (the air was crisp and cold on a sunny day), possibly in a rock cave on the talus slope.

We have requests for i.d. help out to several herpetologists, and hopefully will be able to post the actual species name in due course.

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