Sifnos, 2024

If you want to see a wide variety of species in a short trip report you should probably leave now!

So after leaving Thailand and arriving back in Europe for the summer holidays, what to do? Spend all summer in England? No way Pedro. After one week in Slovakia I flew to Athens on 1st July for a visit to Sifnos island in the Cyclades, somewhere I have twice been before. Unlike nearby Milos, this island has been neglected in recent decades by herpetologists, especially with regard to the populations of the blunt-nosed/Milos viper (Macrovipera schweizeri/lebetina). Sifnos is a very different island when compared to the other three islands in the Cyclades where the viper occurs, here being more typically Cycladic without the volcanic nature of Milos etc. The island is also a lot more cultivated compared to others nearby, and almost all stream valleys here are used for some form of irrigation and have been considerably altered when compared to the west of Milos, inland Kimolos and almost the entirety of Polyiagos island. Housing development also seems to be experiencing a bit of an unfortunate boom. The vipers here show some morpological differences and seem to attain a larger adult size compared to the other islands. They were also previously considered to be an endemic subspecies Macrovipera schweizeri siphnensis, although many no longer accept the validity of this subspecies. Apart from that the herpetofauna of Sifnos is relatively depauperate, especially lacking in widespread snakes in the Cyclades such as cat snake (Telescopus fallax) and grass snake (Natrix natrix).

July is not a great time to visit, daytime temperatures were already over 30c early in the morning up to nightfall so I mainly searched during the mornings, evenings and at night. Thomas Daftsios from Thessaloniki joined me for half of the trip to continue his on-going research on vipers across Greece. Thank you for the company malaka mou!

Despite the drought a number of areas with froggies (Pelophylax sp) were found, although clearly not overly abundant on Sifnos. The three omnipresent species were of course Kotschy’s gecko (Mediodactylus kotschyi), Turkish gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) and Erhard’s wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii). The latter seemed a lot less abundant here compared to other islands in the Cyclades that I have visited, no idea why. They also weren’t particularly well-marked compared to elsewhere. Unlike my previous trips to Sifnos, Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata hanschweizeri) were found at a number of locations, although at this time of year mainly females were encountered. Snake-eyed skinks (Ablepharus kitaibelli) were seen crawling around dusk most evenings.

As mentioned, Sifnos is not a place to visit if you want to see a variety of snake species, with only three having been recorded here. The Caspian whip snake (Dolichophis caspius) was seen several times. One hunting by a water pool, another climbing a sea cliff (see photos below), two adults crossing the road and a few others killed on the roads. Standard summer result. Typically on the Cyclades these guys do not grow as large as on the mainland or the larger Aegean islands (Lesvos, Samos etc). Now to the vipers. Despite my efforts, I could not find any viper out in the open during daylight hours at this time of year, even though the first hour or two after sunrise still seemed favourable. Therefore, the eight living vipers I found were all met during the night. Interestingly, all were females at this time of year, and adult males didn’t seem to be doing anything but hiding away. The first two animals, an adult and a juvenile female, were encountered on the move in a steep valley and in fact all the vipers seen were actively moving when encountered. Each of the adult females I found (3) were clearly gravid and therefore likely searching for suitable egg-laying locations. The sub-adult could also have been gravid and I suspect the juveniles I saw (4) were actively hunting small prey items during the night. Males must have been taking it easy after breeding and presumably fed sufficiently in the spring and early summer. Some of the juveniles were crossing the road well into the night and a few were also found as roadkills. The two largest female vipers I found were both actively foraging along a relatively steep hillside only metres from the sea shore. The last animal in the photo gallery below with contrasting orangish markings was the largest at around 95 cm.

Sifnos is a very nice island and I always enjoy coming here just as much as the ever popular Milos and the other Cyclades. Local attitudes towards their ‘oxia’ were varied, a larger than usual hiking community seemed in part to value the natural history of the island, including the viper. While others shared the typically negative view towards the snake. Thomas gave a successful presentation to the Mayor of Sifnos and her delegates during the trip which hopefully changed some attitudes towards snakes on the island. Although clearly widespread, I would say now after several visits to Sifnos that the viper populations are indeed smaller than Milos which is roughly a similar sized island but more research is clearly needed in order to establish if this is continued downward trend in numbers.

I’ll be back…