Alexandru Strugariu

Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza | UAIC · Institute of Interdisciplinary Research

The adaptive significance of melanism and the hypotheses regarding the maintenance of colour polymorphism in snake populations have been the subject of numerous studies and great controversies over the years. The present paper aims to present the first data on population characteristics of the adder (Vipera berus berus - one of the taxa most freque...

Climate warming is one of the most important threats to biodiversity. Ectothermic organisms such as amphibians and reptiles are especially vulnerable as climatic conditions affect them directly. Ecological niche models (ENMs) are increasingly popular in ecological studies, but several drawbacks exist, including the limited ability to account for th...

Disruptive selection arises when extreme phenotypes have a fitness advantage compared to more-intermediate phenotypes. Theory and evidence suggest that intraspecific resource competition is a key driver of disruptive selection. However, while competition can be indirect (exploitative) or direct (interference), the role of interference competition i...

The Meadow and Steppe viper, Vipera ursinii-renardi complex is a well-studied group that is divided into several morphological subspecies. In this study, we combine the analyses of two mitochondrial genes with 9 microsatellite markers to compare both phylogenetic signals. Whereas the signal is similar between both genomes within most subspecies, th...

The designation of taxonomic units has important implications for the understanding and conservation of biodiversity. Eurasian vipers are a monophyletic group of viperid snakes (Serpentes, Viperinae), currently comprising four genera (Daboia, Macrovipera, Montivipera and Vipera) and up to 40 species. Taxonomic units have been described using a wide...

Amfibienii si reptilele sunt doua grupuri de animale vertebrate cunoscute sub denumirea colectiva de ,,herpetofauna” si care numara 46 de specii si subspecii in fauna Romaniei. Ca urmare a trasaturilor fizice (piele umeda la amfibieni, privirea fixa a serpilor etc.) si a modului de viata retras, aceste animale nu au cea mai buna reputatie in randul...

Disruptive selection arises when extreme phenotypes have a fitness advantage compared to more intermediate phenotypes. Theory and evidence suggest that intraspecific resource competition is a key driver of disruptive selection. However, while competition can be indirect (exploitative) or direct (interference), the role of interference competition i...

Landscape heterogeneity and fragmentation are key challenges for biodiversity conservation. As Earth’s landscape is increasingly dominated by anthropogenic land use, it is clear that broad-scale systems of nature reserves connected by corridors are needed to enable the dispersal of flora and fauna. The European Union currently supports a continent-...

Understanding how climate and land cover currently shape species distributions and community structure is crucial to inform conservation decisions. Unfortunately, limited information is available for the relative importance of climatic and land use variables in determining the distribution of amphibians and reptiles. Here, we studied amphibian and...

The Caspian whip snake (Dolichophis caspius) occurs at its northwestern distribution range limit in Romania, where it is only present in the southern part of the country, but the overall range pattern is problematic and poorly understood. Here we compiled an updated distribution for the species in Romania, adding 29 new distribution records spread...

Brazil, home to one of the planet’s last great forests, is currently in trade negotiations with its second largest trading partner, the European Union (EU). We urge the EU to seize this critical opportunity to ensure that Brazil protects human rights and the environment. Brazil’s forests, wetlands, and savannas are crucial to a great diversity of I...

Deliberate tail loss or urotomy is a predator-escape adaptation widely encountered throughout the animal world. In snakes, it has been previously reported in the form of pseudoautotomy (i.e. intervertebral breakage without regeneration), but only in species normally characterized by slender bodies and long tails (Colubridae, Elapidae and Lamprophid...

The Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius) is a successful species throughout most of its wide distribution range that covers both Europe and Asia in part but, as with many other snake species, detailed ecological information is absent, including data on reproductive traits. In the present study we add new information about the reproductive biolog...

The blotched snake (Elaphe sauromates) is a large, heavy-bodied snake primarily inhabiting steppes, semi-deserts and forest-steppes from flat or mountainous regions; the species is highly elusive and characterized by low population densities which, along with other factors, has led to it being listed on Annex II of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC...

In this paper we present the results of a herpetological faunistic study conducted in the Natura 2000 site ROSCI0033 Cheile Șugăului-Munticelu, situated at the western limit of Neamț County, in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains. Based on field surveys conducted during June-August 2015, we report the presence and map the local distribution of four sp...

We present the first record for the dice snake (Natrix tessellata) from northeastern Romania, based on a field survey conducted in July 2014. The origin of this apparently isolated population, as well as the apparent absence of the species from the Romanian bank of the Prut River are also discussed.

This poster was displayed at International Zoological Congress of “Grigore Antipa” Museum, 16-19 NOVEMBER 2016

The Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) is a widespread colubrid species, being present in much of central and southern Europe, with isolated populations occuring as far east as Iran. In Romania, the species is known from most of the country’s regions, although it has been reported from very few areas from the Moldova region (eastern and north–...

We present a first analysis of the ecology and potential distribution of Euscorpius carpathicus (Linnaeus, 1767), a scorpion species endemic to southern Romania, and report on the overwintering habitat selection of this species. Using field data, literature review, species distribution modelling, and habitat selection models, we document the broad...

The genus Laticauda (Reptilia: Elapidae), commonly known as sea kraits, comprises eight species of marine amphibious snakes distributed along the shores of the Western Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Indian Ocean. We review the information available on the geographic range of sea kraits and analyze their distribution patterns. Generally, we found tha...

Amphibians and reptiles are among the most threatened animal species in Europe. Because of their legal conservation status, amphibians and reptiles may act as umbrella and flagship species in certain areas. The Rarău-Giumalău Natura 2000 site (ROSCI 0212) is such an area that, despite its conservation status, is still exposed to human activities al...

The blotched snake (Elaphe sauromates) is one of the most elusive species of snakes in Romania, and only a small number of individuals have ever been found, which is why morphological data are both scarce and over half a century old. The data gathered from the individuals captured during our field work confirmed the presence of sexual dimorphism (s...

The spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) has a broad but fragmented distribution range, comprising regions from southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Many populations are isolated, some of them being at a distance of tens of kilometers one from another. The species is listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN Red List, while it is consid...

European vipers are typical capital breeders and most studies have revealed that females usually reproduce once every two or three years and that, in some cases, females reproduce once during their lifetime. This paper presents evidence, based on monitoring marked snakes in consecutive years, that several female adders (Vipera berus) from a montane...

Amphibians and reptiles are declining worldwide and information on their detailed distribution is key to proper conservation initiatives. This paper presents the results of a rapid survey on the composition and distribution of herpetofauna from the Taia River Valley (Hunedoara County, Romania), one of the many unstudied areas of the Southern Carpat...

The smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) and the grass snake (Natrix natrix) are Palearctic species with wide distribution ranges, including in Romania, where they often occur in sympatry. The present note reports the first direct observation of a smooth snake ingesting a live grass snake, an event witnessed in the peri-urban area of Iaşi, Romania, o...

In the recent history, climatic changes have taken place at a planetary scale and organisms needed to adapt to these changes. The last glaciation is one of most documented climatic events responsible for the current distribution of living organisms. In the last two decades, conservationists have intensively discussed how extant organisms, some of w...

The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth survey of feeding ecology and trophic interactions of two syntopic newt species (Triturus cristatus and Lissotriton vulgaris) inhabiting aquatic breeding habitats from the eastern Romanian Carpathian Mountains. We sampled 736 individuals from both species. The trophic spectrum was based mostly on Ass...

In the current paper we present our results from a herpetological survey that took place along one of the Southern Carpathians river systems. The survey was conducted over a period of two days in the summer of 2008 and in spring 2011 and a four-day period in the summer of 2013, following the upper course of the Topolog River and one of its tributar...

Worldwide, snakes are among the most threatened vertebrate groups. The Moldavian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii moldavica) is a critically endangered subspecies of Vipera ursinii, a species which is also endangered throughout its entire fragmented European range. V. u. moldavica has been previously recorded from several locations in Eastern Romania b...

Lissotriton montandoni is an endemic newt species found only in the Carpathian Mountains and lives in sympatry with Lissotriton vulgaris in many aquatic habitats from the entire range of the former species in the Carpathian and Sudetes Mountains or in the hilly areas from the Subcarpathians. These two species usually generate hybrids where their pa...

The present paper discusses preliminary data on population characteristics and ecology of the meadow viper Vipera ursinii in the Romanian Danube Delta. Using line transects and the Distance software, the size of the studied population was estimated at 321 (95% confidence interval: 166–618) individuals on a 62 ha area. The sex-ratio of the populatio...

Environmental factors, especially temperature, have a particularly strong influence on most aspects of the life history of ectothermic organism. Gestation time and post-reproductive survivability in female viviparous snakes from the temperate regions (typical capital breeders) has been shown to be strongly influenced by temperature. This and other...

The Moldavian Meadow Viper is a species, which eats mainly insects and lives in the steppe vegetation at low heights, where there are also predators that can hunt it or that are rivals for the food resources. In the period 2009-2011, we took an account of the presence of predators in the habitats with meadow viper populations. The day predators hav...

Human activities cause habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation of reptile habitats and therefore one fifth of the European reptiles are threatened. Vipera ursinii is probably the most threatened snake in Europe. In Eastern Romania V. u. moldavica inhabits steppe and deltaic habitats in Moldavia and the Danube Delta, respectively. Although the h...

In Romania, the dice snake (Natrix tessellata) has been, until recently omitted from any specific studies and its national distribution and ecology is only known from accounts in numerous dispersed papers which discuss the general distribution of the herpetofauna in several regions. Here we aim to present an updated review of the histori-cal and cu...

Morphological variation of vipers of the Vipera berus complex in Eastern Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Western and Central Ukraine was studied using multivariate statistics. Discriminant analysis, based on ten meristic characters in 89.7% of cases (males) and in 92.0% cases (females), was able to separate reference samples of subspecies Vipe...

Amphibians and reptiles are endangered at European level. The aim of the study is to present the detailed distribution of the herpetofauna of the area surrounding the village of Sfântu Gheorghe. We identified 7 amphibian and 6 reptile species of which only one is not legally protected. The main threats for the amphibians and reptiles are the habita...

Paedomorphosis is a widely distributed evolutionary change of salamanders and newts, where larval structures remain in adult animals due to hard conditions of the terrestrial environment (e.g. Semlitsch and Wilbur, 1989; Denoel et al., 2005a). This feature is considered to be both genetically and environmentally influenced in the choice to keep the...

During 2005-2008, field observations were made on the distribution and habitat occupation by Podarcis muralis in the middle Bistrita river basin. Prior to our study, this lizard was known from only 5 localities in Romanian Moldavia (Bicaz, Cheile Bicazului, Lacu Rosu, Gherman and Dodeni). Through the present paper the authors acknowledge the existe...

The sand boa (Eryx jaculus) is one of the least known and rarest reptile species in Europe. InRomania, the sand boa is the rarest reptile species with only four locality records being known; atCernavodă, Cărpiniş-Giuvegea, Cochirleni and Mahmudia (Kirițescu 1903; Fuhn & Vancea 1961; Zinke &Hielscher 1990). To estimate the predictors and the probabi...

The Carpathian Corner region (Buzău and Vrancea Counties) is one of the Romanian areas inwhich data on the herpetofauna is most scarce. The adder (Vipera berus), a widespread but threatenedRomanian snake species, has been previously recorded in the Carpathian Corner area around 50 yearsago but its presence in the area has not been recently reconfir...

In the Jiului Gorge National Park we identified 11 species of amphibians (Salamandra salamandra, Mesotriton alpestris, Triturus cristatus, Lissotriton vulgaris, Bombina variegata, Bufo bufo, Bufo viridis, Hyla arborea, Pelophylax ridibundus, Rana dalmatina, Rana temporaria) and 12 species of reptiles (Lacerta agilis, Lacerta viridis, Podarcis mural...

The ecological advantages and disadvantages of melanism in reptiles, especially in the adder (Vipera berus (L. 1758)), have been intensively studied over the years. General consideration would agree that, in most cases, adders which go on to become melanistic, are born cryptic, with a typical zigzag pattern, and darken with age, becoming black in t...

This is the first record of a green frog Rana (Pelophylax) kl. esculenta population from the E-system the north-western part of Romania. From April to July 2005 we analysed the trophic spectrum of 84 Rana kl. esculenta females, extracting and identifying a total number of 801 prey items. Beside animal preys, plant materials and remains of shed skin...

Steppe is one of the most altered biome of the world. The majority of the Romanian steppes have been converted into arable land. Our aim was to we aim to present the herpetofauna of a grassland zone, part of a protected area, emphasising on species with protective value and habitat situation. The study area lies at 14 km northward from the city of...

The present paper represents a contribution to the knowledge regarding the current composition and distribution of the herpetological fauna from a poorly surveyed Romanian region (Vaslui County, Eastern Romania). We confirm the presence of most of the recently recorded amphibian and reptile species from the region (Lissotriton vulgaris, Triturus cr...

The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis, Linnaeus 1758) has one of the widest distribution ranges of the palearctic species. L. a. euxinica has an isolated distribution, being present only in the Danube Delta and some vicinal locations from the Black Sea coast in Romania. During several expeditions in the Danube Delta, we have observed L. a. euxinica speci...

The adder (Vipera berus berus) is a very widespread but threatened taxon in Romania. The southern slopes of the Southern Carpathians represent the subspecies’ southern range limit and the distribution of the adder in this area is scarcely known due to a lack of recent surveys. Here we present a new record for the adder in the SouthernCarpathians, w...