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44 Herpetological Bullen 163 (2023)
The smooth snake Coronella austriaca Lauren, 1768, is
a medium-sized colubrid snake with a total length rarely
up to 90 cm (Muratet, 2015). It is distributed across most
of Europe, from Portugal in the west to the Ural Mountains
in the east, and northwards to southern Scandinavia. It
reaches the Balkan, Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, and also
some Mediterranean islands (Speybroeck et al., 2016; Di
Nicola et al., 2020). The diet of the smooth snake consists
mainly of lacerd lizards, shrews, and small rodents, less
oen young snakes and slow-worms (Goddard, 1984;
Rugiero et al., 1995; Reading & Jofré, 2013; Kolanek et al.
2020; Kolanek & Bury, 2020). Snakes represent part of the
diet of C. austriaca (Rugiero et al., 1995; Reading & Jofré,
2013). Genus Vipera was previously documented in the
diet of this species (Rugiero et al., 1995; Luiselli et al., 1996;
Reading & Jofré, 2013; Groen, 2018). To the best of our
knowledge, ours is the rst direct observaon of predaon
by a smooth snake on Vipera aspis (L. 1758) in Spain and
beyond the borders of Italy (Rugiero et al., 1995; Di Nicola
et al., 2020).
The Herpetological Bulletin 163, 2023: 44–45
Predaon by a smooth snake Coronella austriaca of an aspic viper
Vipera aspis in Spain
ENEKO I. ESCALANTE1, PRZEMYSŁAW ZDUNEK2,3* & ALEKSANDRA KOLANEK3,4
1Calle el Álamo 3, 3°B, 09240 Briviesca, Spain
2Associaon du Refuge des Tortues, 2920 Route de Paulhac, 31660 Bessières, France
3NATRIX Herpetological Associaon, ul. Opolska 41/1, 52–010 Wrocław, Poland
4University of Wroclaw, Instute of Geography and Regional Development, Department of Geoinformacs and Cartography,
pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50–137 Wrocław, Poland
*Corresponding author e-mail: zdunek.komodo@gmail.com
hps://doi.org/10.33256/hb163.4445
NATURAL HISTORY NOTE
Figure 1. Predaon by an adult smooth snake Coronella austriaca on a juvenile aspic viper Vipera aspis, yellow arrows indicate where the
smooth snake has grasped the aspic viper with its mouth
Herpetological Bullen 163 (2023) 45
Predaon by a smooth snake Coronella austriaca of an aspic viper Vipera aspis in Spain
On 13 June 2022, at 13:42 h about 30 kilometers east
of Burgos, Spain (42.36709° N, -3.317816° W, WGS 84),
while on the hiking circuit Presa de Alba, we saw an adult
smooth snake and a juvenile aspic viper close together. The
area around the observed scene was very humid due to the
nearby dam and the Embalse de Alba river owing alongside.
The surrounding environment was densely overgrown with
brush and low vegetaon, but the observaon took place on
a concrete road and we made a video recording of it (BHS
Video, 2023). It was a sunny warm day with a cloudless sky
and no wind. At the start of the observaon, it seemed as if
the snakes would ignore each other and go their own way, but
they did not (Fig. 1A). The smooth snake iniated an aack
by grabbing the aspic viper near its tail (Fig. 1B). In defence,
the viper bit its opponent a few mes (Fig. 1C), which caused
the smooth snake to wrap around the viper, iniang a
struggle (Fig. 1C&D). The aspic viper bit two more mes and
then gave up the defence. Connuing the constricon, the
smooth snake moved to grab the vicm by its head (Fig. 1E),
and then begun to swallow it whole (Fig. 1F).
The account of predaon presented here increases the
knowledge of the Spanish herpetofauna and adds details to
the known behaviour of C. austriaca preying upon V. aspis
already recorded in Italy (Rugiero et al., 1995; Di Nicola et al.,
2020). It is noteworthy that inially the viper tried to avoid
a confrontaon by moving its body back from the smooth
snake and only bit the smooth snake once it had been
aacked. It would appear that it did not perceive the other
snake as a predator unl it was aacked.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to give a special thanks to Miguel el de la Miel
for being a nature lover and being in the right place at the
right me and Mahieu Berroneau for helpful suggesons to
improve this manuscript.
REFERENCES
BHS Video (2023). Predaon by a smooth snake Coronella
austriaca of aspic viper Vipera aspis in Spain. Recorded
by Miguel el de la Miel. hps://youtu.be/d-HIXSG7l-E.
Di Nicola, M.R., Zecchin, L., D’Amico, M. & Faraone, F.P. (2020).
Ophiophagy in Coronella austriaca: rst case of predaon
on Hierophis viridiavus and rst direct observaons of
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Goddard, P. (1984). Morphology, growth, food habits and
populaon characteriscs of the Smooth snake Coronella
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Groen, J. (2018). It’s a snake-eat-snake world: Predaon on
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Herpetological Review 51(3): 612.
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(2016). Field Guide to the Amphibians & Reples of Britain
and Europe. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc. 432 pp.
Accepted: 20 October 2022