#1564 · 🦎 reptiles

Balkan Whip Snake

🇳🇱 Balkantoornslang ·Hierophis gemonensis

LCleast concern 🦎 Reptiles 📍 in Europe, not in NL

8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The Balkan whip snake ( Hierophis gemonensis , formerly known as Coluber gemonensis ) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. It is found in Italy, Cyprus, Greece (including the Greek islands) and most of the Balkan countries (specifically in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) where its natural habitats are Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, pastureland, plantations and rural gardens. It is threatened by habitat loss in parts of its range but...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 1,377iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
1,377 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768 (258 years ago).