Snake island in Europe - island with venomous Nose-horned vipers and Dice snakes, Golem Grad
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2021
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There is an island full of venomous and non-venomous snakes in Europe. It is called Golem Grad and it is on Lake Prespa. Living Zoology went to film this very remote place and found venomous Nose-horned vipers (Vipera ammodytes), Dice snakes (Natrix tessellata), Hermann's tortoises (Testudo hermanni) and Common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis). The island is also home to many birds, such as cormorants and pelicans. Vipers are smaller than on the mainland, Dice snakes are huge! No people live on the island, it is the snake paradise!
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I've just booked my mother-in-law a flight there, I really hope she has a good time, she deserves it.
Haha, good joke! 😀
I have booked my mother-in-laws daughter in for a long vacation myself.
Name the flight. There are some people I know who deserve a break
😂😂🤣
One Way ! RIGHT ?
Beautiful photography! And I bow to the person(s) who had the courage to go film this!
Thank you very much!!! We love snakes so this place was amazing for us :) Greetings from the Czech Republic, Matej and Zuzana
For those of you who were wondering (like me) where the hell the island is located, it is in northern Macedonia - located in Lake Prespa, a few kilometers from the Greek and Albanian border.
You are right, the info that it is on lake Prespa is in the video. The exact location is not said in the video because of poaching problem.
It’s in south Macedonia, not northern.
absolutely breathtaking footage of incredible reptiles. The quality of your content is right up there with the best. Thank you very much for this education
Many thanks for watching our videos! 🙂It is so cool to hear that you love the quality! ❤️
From the start till the end - it was just exquisite to watch.
Another exceptional effort. It was a treat to watch.
Thanks & stay safe!! Have fun!!
Thank you so much!!! It is so great to hear that you loved watching the video from the beginning until the end! :) Stay safe too!
I concur with others; another superb video in terms of the videography, the capture of the natural behavior of the subjects, and the informative narrative. Your work is in a class of its own. Indeed, I think the sole criticism is that your videos are too short, leaving the audience wanting more!
Many many thanks! It is awesome to read a comment like this ❤️ Haha, we will try to make longer videos! 😀🐍
The quality of your product is absolutely stunning! 10/10. 😌
Yay! Thank you! It makes us very happy to read such a positive comment :)
Extremely high quality filming. Very relaxing, especially with the birdsong sound track. Fantastic, thank you for this
Many thanks! Very happy that you like our style of filming :)
Great job... Thanks for informing this unique beautiful island 😍
Our pleasure 😊 Thank you for watching!
What a beautiful safe haven for the little snakies! 🥰🥰🥰 Its peaceful, where the snakes can have a place to call their own! Not a bunch of humans around to bother them! I love it😇🐍🦋🌸🌺🌻🌷⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you for watching!! Yes, the island is amazing and wild! 🙂🐍❤️
All snakes should be bought herr. Rattlesnakes, cobra
Beautiful video - as always! Marvellous that the animals can live there without human interference.
Couldn't agree more! It is a haven for wildlife! Thank you for watching!
Great video as usual I love your passion for snakes.
Thank you very much!!! Great that you love our passion for snakes!
i absolutely love this channel! All the videos are super relaxing, beautiful and informative. I also get to see oodles or noodles and other cool animals too!
Thank you so much! We are super happy that you love our channel!
leaving some reptile love here ❤️🐍🦎🐢❤️
what a stunningly beautiful place 😍
Thanks for visiting!!! It is great that you like this video! ❤️🐍 Check out some other on our channel!
Enjoyed it ! Thanks !
Thank you very much!!
Superbly filmed as usual and most educational
Thank you very much! 🙏
Thank you for the video.
Thank you for watching!
Beautiful spot. Thanks for capturing it.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
Really cool, and such beautiful photography. Really nice video. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much for watching and happy that you like this video! 🙂
Outstanding video. Great film quality and highly informative. My first Living Zoology video but definitely not the last!
Wow, thanks! We are happy that you like this video and please check out some more on our channel! :)
Vipera ammodytes & Natrix tessellata beautiful video !!!
Thank you for watching! Cheers!
Well well well...!! This onee gonna be awesome...!!
We hope that fans will love this one! :)
What a great video with just the right level of information, thankyou
Glad it was helpful! Thank you very much for watching!
No human voice, it's always divine to be in nature
Thank you for watching!
Supercool video as usual 🙂👌🐍
Thanks for watching!!! Wow, subscriber for 3 years already, that is awesome! Thank you for your support!
Really enjoyed this video
Glad you enjoyed it!!! Thank you!
Beautiful! National Geographic has a new rival… well done!
Wow, thank you so much!!! We appreciate this a lot!
Beautiful snake!
Yes, we agree! Thank you for watching!
Great video i love snakes great footage
Glad you enjoyed!!! Thank you for watching!
Natural photography i love snakes ❤
Thank you very much for watching! Great that you love snakes!
Top Channel and high Quality. And only nature is speaking very relaxing at all. Is the amodytes viper also called jumping viper?
Thank you very much! In Croatia they call them Poskok, which means jumpers. Of course they don’t jump 🙂
What a beautiful island 😍🤩
We agree! Thank you for watching!
Cool video it's beautiful there on that island named Golem grad.
Yes it it! Thank you for watching!
Wonderful photography. Thank you. Subscribed.
cheers from cool Vienna, not so far from Golem Grad, Scott
Thanks for the sub! Happy that you like the video! Cheers from Brno, Czech Republic, where we live! :)
Yet another beautifully shot and presented video. I do wonder if the venom of v. ammodytes from the island has been analysed and compared to mainland specimens. If the snakes have adapted to grow smaller due to a limited and non-mammalian (specifically ectothermic prey, if I understand correctly), it would make little sense for them to invest in a potent venom most suited for mammals and birds.
Thank you very much!!! It is a great question and we would be very interested to know the answer. There is a scientific team collecting samples each year so we hope that they are planning to analyze the venom.
@@LivingZoology it probably would depend on the prey that they feed on. If they are living on birds they're Venom would need to be a higher toxicity to catch p r e y that is living on the ground. The food source and environment always determines the toxicity of the snake's venom. Just like the golden Lance heads that live on Snake Island 93 Mi off the coast of Brazil have a more toxic venom than the f e r - de - l a n c e- b o t h r o p s species that live inland.
@@richardhincemon9423 Nose-horned vipers on the island eat mostly lizards and centipedes. On the mainland, they usually feed on small mammals when they are adults. In terms of centipedes, we would expect them to have more potent venom as centipedes are a tough and dangerous prey.
Great video
Thanks for the visit!
This was like the next best thing to being there ; with the natural noises in the background. If it would have been narrated by one of those robotic voices I think I would have pulled the last of my hair out. This was brilliant!; well done.
Glad you enjoyed it! It is awesome to see that you enjoy the style of most of our videos! :)
Nice film
Thank you!
Cool. I always thought that the snake island off the coast of Brazil was the only one.
There are more snake islands with different snake species. In some of them you have cobras, which are not easy to find: th-cam.com/video/RlwLEBp44LI/w-d-xo.html
GREAT video...no music and talking...very informative and relaxing
Thanks 👍
Very nice and very useful.
Thank you for watching!
FASCINATING VIDEO!! XXXX
Thank you very much!!!
10:19 jumping spider on the right of the baby tortoise ;) Extremely beautiful and informative video! Really want to visit the island!
Wow, such a tiny detail! Thank you very much for watching this video! 🙏❤️🐍
This is the first time I'm seeing a Tortoises mating 😃 😃. Amazing video. Thank you, guys.
Glad you enjoyed it and happy to show you something new!!! :)
Fascinating two cases in perfect opposition, insular nanism (because of restricted prey) and insular gigantism because of prey abundance. One more time fabulous. tesselata would be always one of my favorite snake.
Thank you for watching!!! Yes, both species adapted well to the life on the island!
Wonderful video, I have observed these Viper variants on Corfu.
Thank you very much for watching!
Amazing video as always. I believe there are other nose horned vipers in other parts of the world. The horn must have a use. Any ideas? Is the Dice snake (natrix) related to the European Grass snake by any chance. Oh dear so many questions.
Thank you very much! Nose-horned viper is only one, but there are other vipers with upturned scales on their noses, like Hognosed pit viper (in one of our recent videos). Nobody knows the function of these structures yet. Yes, Dice snakes are related to Grass snakes :)
Like always an amazing video. Unfortunately I didn't find the time to watch the premiere but at least I was able to watch this documentation now. 5:02 - gosh, that coloration!!! Next to V. berus the Vipera ammodytes was my favourite one of the European vipers. I kept and bred them more than 20 years ago (under exceptional permission). I do believe these V. ammodytes of Golem Grad will feed on bird nestlings and smaller birds, too. At least the specimens that I kept were feeding on nestlings beside the usually offered rodents. I also love the N. tesselata. When caught they tend to spray musk similar to the European gras snake (Natrix natrix). Being isolated on this island it's not uncommon to find more melanistic specimens than usual. Same goes for the V. ammodytes - I barely found brown ones when I was out herping.
Thanks heaps for the upload and thanks a lot for showing not only exotic snakes but the European snakes and other reptiles as well.
PS: I was wondering whether or not there are any restrictions to enter this island. It's such a beautiful place with all these animals and it is needed to preserve their habitat and protect this place from tourism.
Thank you very much for watching! We are happy that you enjoy watching videos about herpetofauna of Europe. There are no special permits, but the island is part of a national park.
If I am not mistaken, v. ammodytes, in common with v. berus, is sexually dimorphic: the females are brownish, the males black.
@@johnschlesinger2009 That's not a strict rule although quite often it's correct. But I found both male and female specimens in all different colorations. Melanistic male ones same as melanistic female ones (especially for V. berus). And I had a greyish V. ammodytes with black pattern in my collection that gave birth to 13 babies. Out of my experience it depends on the location of their natural habitat when there's a dimorphism - but as said, not even then it's a strict rule that females are brownish and males a greyish. I for myself rather probed them when I wasn't sure about the sex. But most of the times the tail tells all.
Very enjoyable and good information. The comments were informative too. Thanks for a peaceful learning experience. Maybe you could change the captions to another color for easier reading.
Thank you very much!!! We are happy that you enjoyed watching our video. We try to make the captions easily readable, sorry it is not super easy in some moments.
Beautiful snakes and peaceful place.
Close to the Greek border too.
Yes, such a cool place with many snakes!
better quality than real life
Thank you so much!
Oh! wow that's interesting, this Island looks the same as snake Island in Uganda ( Musabwa Island) I can't wait. ❤️🐍
You will see, it has similarities and also differences :)
Beautiful footage at such a unique place, I hope that poor tortoise came back to her feet again? 😲😁
Thank you very much!! We waited for a few minutes and he could not stand again, so we helped him :)
I like your video about komodo. And this one too. Greetings from java
Thank you very much! Greetings from the Czech Republic!
@@LivingZoology Wonderful Country. Nice content. Keep it up.
Wow … I did not know that!! I can’t wait for this new episode !
You will love the place!!! :)
Beautiful! Can you do a video on the aescualpian snake please?
Thank you! Aesculapian snake will be featured in one documentary soon, but in the meantime check these videos where we filmed this species! th-cam.com/video/5H6p2huXusI/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/G1GaotD9fnU/w-d-xo.html
@@LivingZoology Thank you!
Great place for Pros like yinz.
Thank you!
This looks like a great place for everyone that wants a sanctuary city! Their is a church and everything!
It is especially a great place for nature lovers :)
phong cảnh rất đẹp rất thơ mộng nhưng chết chóc cũng đầy rẫy khắp nơi
Thank you for watching!
Well done,,, very relaxing...
Dice snake --- Black rat snake, very similar, are they related???
Thank you very much!!! They are both colubrids, but only distantly related.
Excellent footage 👏🏾
Much appreciated!! Thank you for watching!
Yeah rite, never seen one snake there my whole life..
We saw quite a few!
💚💚💚
Thank you very much!
Reminds me of the Rhinoceros Viper of Africa which is closely related to the Gaboon viper.
Thank you for watching! You can check videos about those vipers: th-cam.com/video/t_ei89Dflso/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/xg-jsMQGXD4/w-d-xo.html
Very nice video ,I used to camp over there every year ,the snakes use to swim to the beach all the time and sadly been killed
Thank you for watching! You really saw people killing snakes on the lake shore?
@@LivingZoology yes all the time , different country and culture , it's some nice camping places on the lake
Fun little fact. It is said, the government tried to whipe out the snakes with the introduction of a small population of mongooses some time ago. (Might have even been in Yogo times, don't really remember).
This was so the island can be safely studied for its rich ancient/medieval history and supposedly it was going to be turned into a major tourist attraction in the area.
The plan worked exceptionally well, with the sighting of snakes drastically declining...for a few months. Thankfully the mongooses did not survive the harsh winter that followed and the snake population increased to as it once was.
Did this really happen? If yes, how long time ago? It still seems to be a bit weird that the government would try to do this, but you never know nowadays :D
@@LivingZoology I posted a comment with the link, but apparently TH-cam must have deleted it because of the unknown site. (I will post the link seperatly so this time the translation stays)
Yes it is actually true! 😁
I have heard the story from people of Prespa and nearby Ohrid.
I have also found a news article about trees on the island that briefly mentions the event (I will post the link separately)
From the news article:
"Во карпите до водата се кријат многубројни водни змии - белоушки. Тие не се отровници, но како влекачи се непријатни за посетителите. Правени се обиди за нивно уништување со ежови (1949) и мунгоси (1969) но поголем успех не беше постигнат."
Transition:
There are numerous snakes that hide in the rocks nearby the water. Most are not venomous, but as reptiles they are unpleasant to visitors. Attempts were made to destroy them with hedgehogs (1949) and mongooses (1969) but no major success was achieved.
So yes, apparently it was attempted in Yogo times and as a snake lover and environmentalist I can say THANKFULLY it failed!
PS: Great video! Thank you for making a video on our little island and its wildlife. 🐍🦎🐢💚
Remind me to give that island a miss if ever I am in Macedonia!
It is ok if you don't go there! :D
Superb as always. Is the island deserted of human inhabitants and activity? - what natural predators exist there to threaten them?
Thank you! The island is part of national park so there are no people, only natural predators (birds, other snakes).
I know this is about the snakes, but that rock is beautiful for a Mediterranean landscape
The place in general was so beautiful!
Its located in macedonia have a nice day
Thank you for watching this video!
What an idyllic paradise the birds songs were simply beautiful beyond measure there is also a small island off the coast of Brazil that has huge populations of deadly vipers and the people stay away and it stays pristine anywhere humans appear they turn paradise into dust and ashes the Curse and Mark of Cain :-(
Yes, the bird sounds on this island were amazing! It is not easy to get to the island near Brazil, we tried but did not get permit...
Great film! I truly enjoyed it. However, I noticed there are no warning signs!!!! A tourist boating by may think it's a wonderful place for a picnic or swim. The original snake island that has the golden lance snake. Has signs all over and it doesn't even have a beach
Thank you very much! This place is very remote and only a few people come to visit. It is also a part of a national park, so the island is protected. When you go inland from the beach, there are signs and information plate. The island near Brazil is not accessible to anyone except military personnel and researchers.
Nemůžu se dočkat :-).
Doufám, že se ti tohle video bude obzvláště líbit :)
Beautiful video as always, I always loved Nose horned viper since I grew up in southern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We call it 'Poskok' since there is a wide spread myth that he is able to jump, people mistaked it for it's leap when it attacks. I saw a white Vipera ammodytes one time and it was beautiful. I'm not really sure is it a male or female.
The coloration has nothing to do with the gender of the snake. Usually there is no gender dimorphism for V. ammodytes. The best way to determine the gender of V. ammodytes is by looking at the tail. But you should be experienced to know the differences between the length of the tail of a female and of a male snake. Male snakes tend to have longer tails because that's the place where both the hemipenises are hidden. The tail of a female snake is rather short and 'stumpy'.
Thank you for watching!!! This species is called Poskok also in Croatia. Nosed-horned viper is a very variable species. Females in general tend to be brownish and males greyish, but you need to look on the tail also.
@@wernerpoeschl0510 Thank you for explanation. Never the less it was a beautiful sight to see one that's white.
@@LivingZoology Yeah, our languages are basically the same, love your channel and I hope you get to do more videos in South Balkan, especially about Poskok. There is a huge stigma and fear of these beautiful creatures.
@@tariks926 We will post more videos from our trip to Balkan, stay tuned! :)
Vipera ammodytes is one of the most beautiful viper species, but its deadliness is highly overstated. Lethal bites haven't been reported since dozens of years.
We agree that it is a very beautiful species! Of course, it far away from a really lethal species like the Russell's viper. We just wanted to state that it is possible to die after the bite from Vipera ammodytes. We recently found a paper about bites from Croatia, published in 1997 and there were two cases of deaths of adult soldiers.
Just a few months ago in Austria…
Bees Nees: A co-worker did the same for his mother-in-law, but she never returned. BTW it is interesting to note that the Nose Horned Vipers all grew larger than normal.
Thanks for watching! The Nose-horned vipers on the island grow smaller than on the mainland.
@Living Zoology : You have a great channel, and I will be an avid follower. My remark about the "Nose-Horn Vipers were "facetious," and meant in a humorous manner, to the hilarious comments posted by Bees Nees. What I like about your channel is that you address information about the Reptiles in Western Europe and the Balkans. Many of us have never thought about the venomous, or non-venomous, snakes in those Countries. They are equally important as those in my Country (USA), and Asia, including the Orient. Your presentations are well done and very interesting. I thank you, Sir.
👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you!
Bear Gryills should go..lol
Better not! 😀
Beautiful video. Wouldn’t put a toe there.
Thank you for watching! It is a beautiful place!
I'm so glad where I live we don't have any snakes at all and never will
For us it would be boring to live in a place without snakes :D
Imagine being a castaway landing on that island , thinking you found sanctuary.
It is a beautiful place! Full of life :)
Macedonia my country. ❤
Your country is beautiful!
Would love to metal detect that place😎 tell me were the bird sounds from the actual video?
Thank you for watching! Yes, the sound is recorded on the island!
@@LivingZoology wow ! Those vipers resemble SawScales
If I wanted to read I would have grabbed a book
Check out our narrated documentaries: th-cam.com/video/mjWNCWMTBjY/w-d-xo.html
There are two lakes, the large and the small Prespa.The small is in Greece and the larger stands on the borders of Albania, Greece and North Macedonia.The major part is in North Macedonia.The entire area is protected by the Ramsar Convention.
Yes, you are right. Thank you for watching.
Hi! Beautiful video as always. Just a few questions:
- How do you know that Vipera ammodytes mostly eat lizards and centipedes on that island ?
- How do you know that natrix tesselata are bigger on island ? I could not find any info on that. And are you suggesting that the reason for that is because there is more fish around the island than on the coast ?
Hello, thank you for watching.
1. There is a team which studies Nose-horned vipers on the island, also their diet
2. Also the result of research and witnessed by us in the field
@@LivingZoology Thanks for your answer! Are those research published ?
@@JuggleZephyr Yes, easy to find :)
@@LivingZoology Ok! I could find the study on the diet of Vipera ammodytes. Don't you think it is disrespectful to use the results from this paper without giving any credit to the authors ? They put a lot of work into it, you could cite the paper.
Also, could you please give me the link to the study on natrix tesselata's increased size on the island ? I'm interested but I can't find anything.
(for anyone reading those comments interested in the ammodytes paper, here are the info:
Tomović, L., Arsovski, D., Golubović, A., Nikolić, S., Anđelković, M., Sterijovski, B., Ajtić, R., Crnobrnja-Isailović, J. and Bonnet, X., 2019. Population characteristics of the nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) on Golem Grad Island (North Macedonia). )
@@JuggleZephyr Why should it be disrespectful to use the information from the paper without citing it? The purpose of science is to spread the general knowledge. This is an TH-cam channel for popularization, not a scientific study. We help to spread the knowledge which would not be found by most people because scientific papers are not saying it in 'normal language'. We often film research projects and spread message about them because we want to help. People don't come here to look for citations. If we will work on a scientific paper and use their data or interpret their conclusions, we will cite their paper of course. You can try to find the original source of every information, like the fact that Nose-horned viper is from genus Vipera for example, but for the purpose of documentaries about snakes it is not desirable. You are the only person from around 93k subscribers who is asking for citations. The Dice snake paper is here: www.cebc.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/publipdf/2013/AZA252_2013.pdf
The snakes that St. Patrick cast out from Ireland, had to go somewhere!🙏❤️👉🇺🇸
Thank you for watching!
I live in Queensland we have few snakes
We will be there in one and half month :)
if a King cobra ends up here it will become a Python in no time at all
Yes, lots of prey for King cobra.
how did the snakes get the island?
Dice snakes are good swimmers, but it is not sure how Nose-horned vipers got there.
Lovely video. The snakes in this video seem to exhibit breathing so much more than other videos I see. It is really noticeable.
Thank you very much for watching! Nose-horned vipers are very nervous in general and it is difficult to film them relaxed. They always react quite strongly to your presence around them. We really tried to keep our distance.
Poskok 🐍🐍🐍
Yes, exactly! 🐍
Was there human living there b4 like long time ago?
Yes, old ruins of churches and other buildings suggest that people lived there before.
How it is photographed sir ?
Carefully with all our focus :)
Snakes swim. What's to keep them on the island??
Dice snakes are also common on the shore of the lake. Nose-horned vipers would probably not swim to the shore and are trapped there.
Are these snakes just in the tanks for show
We are proud that we work hard and look for snakes on our own, often with the help of local people. So these snakes are found in the wild, filmed and released.
They should rename it to Nightmare Island. LOL.
It is a beautiful natural place! ;)
Did they help the turtle get back on his belly or they let it died?
We waited for 5 minutes and when we saw that the male is hopeless, we turned him back ;)
I think a boatload of mice 🐭 would be a welcome addition!
Haha, yes! 😀
Where is this island in Europe
In Northern Macedonia