It was only in 1988 that Nilson and Andren described a new subspecies of the Vipera ursinii complex, that later became the full species now known as the Greek Meadow Viper, Vipera graeca.
Its habitat is very fragmented, as it lives only on the top of the mountains of Pindos range, only in Greece and Albania, from 1600 to 2000 metres altitude.
With friends Elias, Kyriakos, Mike and Manolis, off we went to find this rare snake, at a spot were some years ago with other friends we had found 4 of them. Full of confidence, we started for two days of herping on the high mountains. In the first five minutes we found our first viper for the trip!!
Spirits were high, that we would find many little jewels like this (it is a dwarf viper, very small and delicate). But it was not to be. We didn't find any other viper for the rest of the day, so we just photographed this one, which was about to shed the skin, so not very bright colours. Never mind!
This species is a glacial relic. It was more widespread when the glaciers were covering Europe, but when they retreated, it just climbed up the mountains to find its optimum climate. So now it is found only on the alpine and subalpine grasslands of Pindos range.
After a long search and when the heat was intense, we decided to go to lower altitudes for more herping, and may be some shade. We tried some spots at clearings of fir forests and riversides. The fir forests are always somehow disappointing, but the riverside yielded some good critters.
After spending the hottest part of the day in the shadows, time was to move to the river
Next day we continued herping at various localities on the road back
