Welcome to Jeroen Speybroeck's website on European amphibians and reptiles.
NEWS
* February 4th 2010 - finally, it starts again
Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra) (Belgium - 3/2/2010)
* February 3rd 2010 - fun, fun, ...
Here are some rough sketches of the
preliminary 2010 trip plans.
Calabria and Sicily - 24/4-5/5/2010
Eurotour - 14/7-11/8/2010
* January 20th 2010 - boredom
While waiting for spring, I have been adding some things to the "The making of..." page.
General travel plans still the same. Prepared already a lot, so really looking forward to the first trip.
* December 5th 2009 - preliminary schedule 2010
May: S Italy and/or Sicily
July: Slovenia, parts of Austria, Croatia + probably quite a bit more to the west
November: Gambia
* October 25th 2009 - Samos trip report
Back from Samos with once more a pretty good result. Here's the report.
* October 7th 2009 - almost Samos and a little bit about 2010
Just little over a week now, before we take off to Greece once more. An international team of 14 people from 7 different nationalities. Can't wait!
Next year's plans still vague, but already one fixture: a July trip to Slovenia with the larger 'Hyla family'.
* August 25th 2009 - Samos fixed
Final trip for 2009 to Samos, from the 16th until the 23rd of October. Will be quite hard, given the season and the alleged low abundance of some species, but we're going for it!
* July 7th 2009 - what’s next?
Summer will be quiet. Autumn 2009: big chance for Samos in October. Spring 2010: maybe trip for Zamenis lineatus, tiny islet Podarcis raffonei and others. Maybe Menorca (Macroprotodon). And then there’s still Podarcis levendis. And the rest of the world. Always lots of places and animals to explore and enjoy.
* June 30th 2009 - Crete trip report
We're back! Didn't make it to Pori, but had quite a good result on Crete. Here's the report.
* June 2nd 2009 - Crete & Pori
Jan, Gijs and me, together with our Greek friend Ilias Strachinis, will go to Crete soon! Off on June 19th, back on June 29th. Included: boat trip to see Podarcis levendis on the tiny islet Pori, north of Antikythira. It will be hot, so hard(er) to find some species, but an advantage might be the bigger chance to spot Caretta caretta.
Update - Peter & Anniek will join us as well! Beware, Cretan snakes...
* 23rd of May 2009 - Corsica & Sardinia trip report
Here's the fresh report of our very enjoyable trip to Corsica and northern Sardinia.
* 27th of April 2009 - not much to say but intensely counting down
In about 2 weeks (May 12th), Tim and I are leaving for Corsica (back on the 21st). No 'new' species on my menu, yet an astonishing destination. Hope to take better pics (vs. 2003 - Euleptes, Euproctus, Salamandra, Discoglossus, ...). Flying to Alghero (NW Sardinia), so probably also some Sardinian sites (Euproctus platycephalus!).
Crete in June is still up. Will be hot, but the endemics should be not so hard. Advantages: should give us a shot at Caretta and maybe the endemic pale subspecies of Cat Snake. Still working on transport to Podarcis levendis too.
Plans for an Italian autumn trip with the usual herping team still exist, while some are now in Florida and/or will hit Gambia again in July. It won't be very long before this site will start to feature non-European reports, I guess, because I am also starting to think about destinations further away...
* 5th of April 2009 - new overview page
Just released a new page, constructed with old stuff. It displays the European herps in systematical order, thus providing an illustrated overview of the European amphibians and reptiles (>15MB). Replaces my similarly named PDF, because easier to edit etc.
* 18th of March 2009 - trivia
I have inserted a pic of a Teira dugesii from Lisbon on this page (scroll down).
Seems like Podarcis raffonei might have to be removed from the list of observed species of our 2005 trip... Already plotting to have another go at it.
Plans remain: Corsica in May, Crete in June. For October, hopefully a trip to southern Italy or Sicily with a larger team.
* 6th of March 2009 - At last!
All pictures are back online now. I will do what I can to keep it this way. Sorry for the inconvenience; I am sure I hated it as much as any of you.
Together with this, my NeMys EUROHERP Database is slowly being resurrected too. Will take a while before all is well again, though.
* 5th of March 2009 - Sardinia trip report
Here's the report of our Sardinia trip.
* 19th of February 2009 - Sardinia, plans and trouble
Next Wednesday, we're off to Sardinia for our salamander hunt. Overthere, weather seemed to be terrible for reptiles and maybe even amphibians at first (freezing!), but now seems to be slowly improving. Each different forecast website tells a different story, though. Fingers crossed!
Some plans: Corsica in May and Crete in June. However, nothing 100% fixed yet.
Apologies for the continued absence of the pictures...
* 30th of December 2008 - Lisboa and fixture Sardinia
Just got back from a Lisbon citytrip. One of the four days was not cold and rainy, so I payed a visit to the spot where
Teira dugesii (Madeira Wall Lizard) has been introduced tens of years ago. Still around: I observed quite some juveniles and a couple of adults. Also a single
Podarcis at a nearby site.
Finally a new herp trip fixed: we're off to Sardinia 25th of February and will be back on the 4th of March. Ready for 2009!
P.S.: Temporary disappearance of some pics on this site is (also) related to NeMys Euroherp being down. Will try to get those pics up again asap.
* 10th of December 2008 - where we're at + maybe, maybe, maybe
As by now Europe has revealed most of its herp treasures to us, our joined interests and targets for future herping trips are becoming less obvious. Furthermore, not all of us are attracted to the same destinations. However, it seems rather certain we will keep on herping together, every now and then.
Actually, the idea of a winter salamander trip to Sardinia was mildly revived, when our team's core members met at our Hyla society's biannual 'convention' a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps in February! Other stuff: Jan's off to Gambia again very soon and Peter and others will go to Florida at the end of April. I am hoping to join in on the Florida trip or maybe spend the Easter holidays on Corsica = a revisit I've been wanting to do for a while now, in order to replace my 2003 pics with some more decent ones. Looking further ahead, an autumn trip to Crete or maybe Sicily would be nice, but way too early to fix yet. We'll see; drop by again later.
* 29th of September 2008 - silence...
Adrenalin levels running low, as I have no concrete trip plans to look forward to, yet a house to restore, rebuild, re-re-re, ... . I was hoping for a winter salamander trip to Sardinia, but unsure at the moment. Those few of you who missed it so far, please enjoy the terrific website of the European Field Herping Community, as I have been doing for the last couple of months.
EUROHERP remains unfortunately down until further notice.
* 21th of August 2008 - summer time and EUROHERP (2) + two new lizards
Our Hyla weekend turned out pretty good. Forum post (in Dutch) can be found here. My consecutive Swiss trip was very enjoyable but (very) low on herps - just a couple of asps on a day out together with Konrad Mebert. Butterflies and some special dragonflies caught my attention, as well as hiking.
NeMys is still very ill, so EUROHERP remains unfortunately infected a little longer. Nevertheless, I would already like to mention that two new lizard species have been described from Greece (Lymberakis et al., 2008). Two pieces have been chopped of the Podarcis erhardii superspecies: Podarcis cretensis from Crete and surrounding islets and Podarcis levendis from the islet Pori (at 7,4km north of Antikythira).
* 16th of July 2008 - summer time and EUROHERP
Tomorrow, I'm off for our annual Hyla weekend. This time, we hit the Brenne region near Chateauroux (France), rich in ponds and aspis. After that, I will be moving on with some friends to Switzerland for a "non"-herping holiday. Depending on the beasts I come by, both trips might result in a small report but we'll see.
In other news, the NeMys server, hosting the EUROHERP database, is suffering from hacker attacks. No content changes or additions until this has been dealt with properly.
* 11th of May 2008 - Montenegro trip report
Here's the report of our fabulous Montenegro trip.
* 14th of April 2008 - new 1999 report by Jan
On the 'Jan's reports' page, there's a new report of a trip to wonderful Corsica.
* 3rd of April 2008 - off at the end of this month
Our next trip will be from April 25th until May 9th and our target is Montenegro. Taxa of special interest are the regional endemics, including the newly described Prokletije Rock Lizard (Dinarolacerta montenegrina).
* 22nd of February 2008 - far away from here...
My friends went herping in Africa - here's their Gambia report. I should have joined them...
* 30th of January 2008 - new 2003 report by Jan
On the 'Jan's reports' page, there's a new report of a trip to Montenegro. Ideal preparation to our forthcoming trip to the very same country! BTW, happy 2008!
* 8th of December 2007 - species links
All scientific species names on all pages are now linked to the corresponding EUROHERP pages. This will also allow me to change names (in case of taxonomical changes etc.) throughout the site more easily in the future, keeping them all up-to-date.
* 30th of November 2007 - music
Totally off-topic: Karoshi !!!
* 15th of October 2007 - Symi trip report
Here's the report of our Symi trip. Hope you like it. This concludes 2007 herping trips for me. Looking forward to 2008!
* 30th of August 2007 - new trip plans
Yes, yes, a new trip is on its way! Inspired by the adventures of our UK colleague Matt Wilson, we will finally start to move outside Europe's geographical boundaries and do an Asian Greek island next October. Symi will be the one. Small, but exciting, due to the presence of fifteen species, among which Hemorrhois nummifer and Eirenis modestus. Further away from Europe, Jan, Gijs, Peter and Anniek will visit Gambia next December - hope to post a report here too!
Travel plans for 2008 are still a bit vague, but Croatia and Montenegro are serious candidates. Crete, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica are also still on the list, as well as some exciting non-European destinations like Georgia, Turkey and Morocco.
* 15th of August 2007 - Hyla weekend
Our Hyla team had its annual weekend in Germany this year. Here's a little post about it.
* 31th of July 2007 - new trip report
Back from a trip to parts of France, Italy and Spain and here is the report.
* 9th of July 2007 - small update on the new trip
Most likely, we will add a visit to the Columbretes Islands to our trip. Though the isles' wall lizard (so-called Podarcis atrata) is best treated as Podarcis liolepis atratus, we still like to get on that boat and take a look at it.
* 4th of July 2007 - new trip
Jan and I intend to visit a couple of places in central and southern France, NE Spain and NW Italy for Calotriton arnoldi, Bombina pachypus, Speleomantes strinatii, Speleomantes ambrosii and Salamandrina perspicillata. The first one is the main attraction for me, the others I'd like to re-photograph. We'll also pay a visit to the unfortunate French Xenopus area. We hope to leave around the 21st of July and get back on the 29th, meeting some fellow herpers along the road. Don't expect a long species list in summer - we just can't stay at home any longer. I'll write a report anyway, though ;-).
* 25th of June 2007 - personal stuff
On July 6th, I will defend my PhD and leave my university. My UGent mail account will die pretty soon. The one you may find at the bottom of each page of this site remains active.
* 7th of June 2007 - The making of ...
Following a guestbook suggestion, I created a The making of ... page. No doubt, it will be modified soon, but it's a start. Comments are welcomed.
* 29th of May 2007 - Romania report
And here is the Romania report.
* 14th of May 2007 - Romania
While Malta got our engines up and running, we're off to Romania in as little as two days. Special desiderata are Meadow Viper varieties, two newt species and Steppe Runner. We will meet local herpetologists such as Alex Strugariu, Ioan Ghira and Iulian Gherghel. Leonard Zammit will be joining in from Malta for the first part of the trip. Back on the 28th.
* 3rd of May 2007 - back from Malta
Early this morning, we got back from Malta. It was another good one! Check out the fresh report.
* 24th of April 2007 - Malta
Finally, 2007 takes its true start. Tomorrow, we're off to Malta, among other things trying to find a specimen of the elusive European population of the Algerian Whip Snake. Back on May 3rd, so you know when to expect a fresh trip report.
Furthermore, I have moved the Jeroen's herp list page and integrated it into the About me page.
* 16th of April 2007 - Viroin
Some pictures of a Belgian traditional (revisited last weekend) - 16 species observed.
* 22nd of March 2007 - new lizard genus names
Some new names for rock lizards (formerly know as 'Lacerta' s.l. and Teira perspicillata) - check out the EUROHERP database.
* 16th of March 2007 - yet another report by Jan
On the 'Jan's reports' page, there's a new report of a trip to Greece (Peloponnese and Milos), even more amply illustrated than Jan's previous reports; check it out!
* 12th of March 2007 - newts of Belgium
As already mentioned below, last weekend we had a newt photoshoot of which I have put some pictures together on this page. Not all as good as I would have liked but at least better than the ones I had until now.
* 8th of March 2007 - pictorial overview of observed species
On the 'About me' page, there's a link to an illustrated overview of the European herpetofauna I made. You will see that there are some gaps, due to species still to be encountered or some that I saw a while ago without taking a picture. Furthermore, some have crappy pictures, which I will hopefully replace in the future. Up first for replacement are the pics of newt species living in my own country, scheduled for a long-awaited photo shoot next weekend.
* 26th of February 2007 - new report by Jan
On the 'Jan's reports' page, there's a new report of a trip to Bulgaria; herpetological observations are listed below the bird list.
* 12th of February 2007 - Jan's reports
Before I started making trip reports, fellow herpetophile Jan Van Der Voort made some nice ones of his trips too. In the 'Trip reports' section, a 'Jan's reports' page with links to illustrated reports in Dutch by Jan Van Der Voort is now available. First report is on a 2002 trip to the Danube delta, preparing us for our 2007 trip through that area. More reports to follow.
* 9th of January 2007 - just passing time some more ...
In the 'Trip reports' section, a 'Before (1999-2003)' page with links to my older reports is now available.
* 8th of January 2007 - just passing time
In a rush of megalomania, I created an 'About me' page.
* 5th of January 2007 - a little something to get through the winter
First of all, best wishes to all field herpetology loving visitors of my website.
Friends Peter and Anniek, two of my most regular travel companions, were bold enough to do another trip at the end of last month. They crossed European borders and went to the south of Tunisia. You can download their report here; it's in Dutch but the pictures speak for themselves. Report is (c) of Peter Engelen.
* 7th of November 2006 - exit 2006
2006 herping is over for me. I was able to observe 101 species this year, so it was a good one.
My herpetological plans for Spring 2007 are most likely Romania (Danube river delta and Carpathians) and Malta. The south of Italy and Crete are also high on the list. Feel free to drop by and read the reports later.
