Vertebrates

The vertebrates living around the village are very diverse because the Carpathian fauna meets the Pannonian (southern) and Pontic (eastern) fauna. Local amphibians include the interesting yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) with its warning yellow-black colouration on its belly, the European green toad (Bufo viridis) and the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra). There are many species of reptiles, but it is the snakes that people fear the most. Only one local species of snake is venomous – the horned viper (Vipera ammodytes), locally called nápurka. Other species are the smooth snake (Coronella austrica), the grass snake (Natrix natrix) and the dice snake (Natrix tessellata), which can be found close to the Danube river, but these are non-venomous and are often killed by people just out of fear. The rarest is the Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus), which can grow to up to two metres in length and is shrouded in bizarre legends. We should also mention the European copper skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii), which looks like a lizard but belongs to the family of skinks, and the eastern slowworm (Anguis colchica), which looks like a snake but is a lizard. Also worth mentioning is Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni), which reaches the northern limit of its habitat here. There are many bird species, for example the Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) and the crested lark (Galerida cristata), which used to be common in the Czech Republic, but are now very rare there.