20 September β 31 October
the coastal calendar, unshifted
South-facing karst, scree and dry-stone walls; motionless, and it will not move for you.
The only genuinely dangerous animal on this page, and even so, essentially every bite in Croatia follows someone reaching into rock, stepping barefoot, or trying to kill it. April and September are the two peaks for encounters β the mating season and the dispersal of the young.
photos, sightings and recordings, off this site
where this species is on the list
| Phase | When | Length | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| wintering in cover | 1 November β 28 February | 120 days | Reptile dormancy β sluggish rather than truly asleep, and broken by warm spells. |
| going about the year | 1 March β 9 April | 40 days | Feeding, holding territory, doing nothing the calendar singles out. |
| courting | 10 April β 19 May | 40 days | Song, display, fighting, scent-marking β pairs forming or reaffirming. |
| pregnant | 20 May β 19 August | 92 days | Pregnant. Nothing to see from outside, which is why the dates matter. |
| raising young | 20 August β 19 September | 31 days | Dependent young in the nest, den or burrow, being fed. Born live, fully venomous, and about twenty centimetres long. |
| young dispersing | 20 September β 31 October | 42 days | Young leaving for good, looking for a territory of their own. |