Corfu or Kerkyra is a Greek Island very close to my heart, as I have visited it eight times in total. Therefore rather than focusing on a particular trip to Corfu I present a small summary of some of my results from my favorite search areas. Most of the tables reference my three most recent trips to the island in October 2006, June 2007 and July 2009, but at some sites which I did not visit every trip I refer even further back in time to October 2004 or July 2005.
Corfu is known for the being the most lush and humid of all of the Greek islands and it is this feature which attracts me time after time as although quite small in size has varied habitats from a mountain in the north (907m) to central plains and southern lowlands covered with ancient olive groves. In addition the island is home to some great ponds and small wetlands which are rich in not only amphibians and reptiles but birds and mammals as well.
All photographs (C) Matt Wilson
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Juvenile Glass Lizard (Pseudopus apodus)
Adult Glass Lizard (Pseudopus apodus) the largest legless lizard in the world
A real beauty: European pond terrapin (Emys orbicularis)
Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata)
Big male Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata)
Balkan terrapin (Mauremys rivulata) basking on the edge of a sand dune pond
Juvenile Montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus) sitting at the side of the road
Big old Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) of 180cm found on cultivated land
Juvenile Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata)
Agile frog (Rana dalmatina)
Shady olive grove with old farm building
Worm snake (Typhlops vermicularis)
Big Marsh frog (Rana ridibunda) sat in the grass
Glass lizard (Pseudopus apodus)
Mt Pandokrator
The highest point of Corfu is Mt Pandokrator which reaches 907m above sea level. On the lower mountain slopes habitats consist of olive groves and ruins whereas higher up rocky hillsides dominate which are especially profitable for Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes).
Table 2: My findings from my three most recent visits to Mt Pandokrator
| Latin name | Common name | 10/04 | 10/06 | 07/09 |
| Bufo bufo spinosus | Common toad | - | 1 dead | - |
| Triturus vulgaris | Smooth newt | - | - | 10+ |
| Algyroides nigropunctatus | Dalmation algyroides | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Lacerta trilineata | Balkan green lizard | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Anguis fragilis | Slow worm | - | - | 1 |
| Hierophis gemonensis | Balkan whip snake | 4 | 2 dead | - |
| Platyceps najadum | Dahl’s whip snake | 1 | - | - |
| Malpolon insignitus | Montpellier snake | - | - | 1 |
| Vipera ammodytes | Nose-horned viper | 1 | 3 | - |
Mt Pandokrator
The peak of Mt Pandokrator
Dahl's whip snake (Platyceps najadum)
Well filled with Smooth newts (Triturus vulgaris)
Slow worm (Anguis fragilis)
Adult male Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes)
Juvenile Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes)
Ropa valley
The Ropa valley plain is a very fertile, flat cultivated area which has numerous wetland habitats such as rivers, marshes and large ponds.
| Latin name | Common name | 10/04 | 10/06 | 07/09 |
| Rana ridibunda | Marsh frog | 100+ | 100+ | 100+ |
| Rana epeirotica | Epirus water frog | 100+ | 100+ | 100+ |
| Emys orbicularis | European pond terrapin | 4 | - | 15 |
| Mauremys rivulata | Balkan terrapin | 1 | - | 1 |
| Podarcis tauricus | Balkan wall lizard | 2 | 1 | - |
| Malpolon insignitus | Montpellier snake | 3 | 1 | - |
| Natrix natrix persa | Grass snake | - | - | 2 |
| Natrix tessellata | Dice snake | 1 | - | 2 |
| Vipera ammodytes | Nose-horned viper | - | 1 | - |
The Ropa river
Marsh frog (Rana ridibunda)
Dice snake (Natrix tessellata) hunting
A big Montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus) killed by a passing car
European Pond Terrapin (Emys orbicularis) together with a Marsh frog (Rana ridibunda)
Messongi-Cholmos
This area consists of a tourist resort and a small mountain called Cholmos (more like a large hill) that has some very old olive groves in the lower valleys in the south western areas of Corfu.
Table 3: My findings during my last two visits to this area
| Latin name | Common name | 06/07 | 07/09 |
| Hyla arborea | Common tree frog | 1 | 6 |
| Bufo bufo spinosus | Common toad | 1 alive 1 dead | - |
| Rana ridibunda | Marsh frog | 5 | few |
| Testudo hermanni | Hermann’s tortoise | 2 | - |
| Hemidactylus turcicus | Turkish gecko | 1 | 1 |
| Lacerta trilineata | Balkan green lizard | 20+ | few |
| Algyroides nigropunctatus | Dalmation algyroides | 10+ | few |
| Podarcis tauricus | Balkan wall lizard | 1 | - |
| Anguis fragilis | Slow worm | 10 dead | - |
| Pseudopus apodus | Glass lizard | 5 | 1 dead |
| Malpolon insignitus | Montpellier snake | 7 alive 10 dead | - |
| Dolichophis caspius | Large whip snake | 1 dead | - |
| Hierophis gemonensis | Balkan whip snake | 3 | 1 dead |
| Platyceps najadum | Dahl’s whip snake | 5 | - |
| Elaphe quatuorlineata | Four-lined snake | 1 | - |
| Zamenis longissimus | Aesculapian snake | 1 dead | - |
View of Mt Cholmos
The Messongi river
Common tree frog (Hyla arborea)
Dalmation algyroides (Algyroides nigropunctatus)
Dahl's whip snake (Platyceps najadum) basking on an old stone wall
Dahl's whip snake (Platyceps najadum)
Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata)
Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) on the move
A Montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus) often found killed on roads like this large adult
Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni) in a grassy field
hey i dunno what this website was supposed to be about but i thought it was great
i wish we had that amount of reptiles here in Canada. well thanks for your time
yours truly
Rob watts
Can you identify a terrapin or turtle being featured on the Agni Travel forum – we are trying to identify it. Please send me an email address and I will forward you pictures.
Hi Rob/Sylvia,
Thanks for the feedback and interest.
@ Sylvia, you can mail me the photos to mjwilsonherp1@yahoo.co.uk and I will happily help.
Matt
Hi Matt,
I was on hols in Corfu, in September 09. We stayed in Moraitika, and I walked up the back of the village, up the winding road to the top of the hill. I found a Balcan green lizard, and took a photo of it, (identified from your photo). Amazing!
Having seen your website I want to go back and find all these other reptiles and creatures. Velma
Hello Matt!
Awesome pictures! I spent my honeymoon with my wife in May, 2009. It was fantastic, but sadly, i killed a green lizard with our hired car.
She sat on the other side of the road. Wish i had the chance, to miss, but she ran under my car at the last moment. 
I was not sure, how it looked, until now! Just remembered that fantastic green color, and her silouette. But i didn’t saw any of the other animals! So Thank you for this chance, it was a pleasure!
Regards,
Fibi, from Hungary
hi Matt ive got a house in Spartilas a village 400metres above sea level barbati, you probabely know the village.I spend on average a month a year there taking photos of wildlife I also go to Zagoria 100 miles East of Corfu in search of Bears and Wolves. I love your reptile pics its not easy getting pictures of live snakes unless you creep up on them when they are sunbathing [basking].Sadly too many snakes are killed by cars and the Greek people hate them and quite often kill them, I once saw an old lady kill a Lepeard snake with a garden hoe,she moved like lightning for an old granny.Another snake killer in Corfu is an animal im very fond of and spend up to eight hours a day camoflaged grey on the rocky outcrops of mount pantocrator,its the Short Toed Eagle [Snake Eagle] in Greek.I have some very good pics and ive seen them carrying snakes,there legs have hard scales to protect them from poisenous bites.After all that trekking over the mountain its allways nice to have a cold beer or four in the bar in Spartilas.I hope you found this interesting and maybe I might bump into you next year,im on the look out for a good pictures of Eleonoras Falcons there is a colony on Orthoni island and are seen at a certain cliff site on Pantocrator.Stuart Hill.
Hi Stuart,
I am very envious of you having a home at Spartilas, this is a beautiful area where I have spent alot of time searching for wildlife. Thanks for the comments regarding my photographs, and you are right, photographing snakes is very difficult! The trick is to see them before they see you. It is a shame the amount of snakes that are killed through ignorance, everyone in Corfu (and the rest of Greece) fears the Oxia (nose horned viper) and no matter how the snake they encounter may appear they believe it to be this species and kill them needlessly. On occasions I have had to actually allow a non-venomous snake to bite me to prove to passing locals that it is comepletely harmless.
As you live on the Pandokrator mountain, have you ever encountered the rare Jackal?
Best wishes,
Matt
hello again Matt,thats brave letting a snake bite you to prove its harmless,you are right the locals are terrified of the nose horned vipers and i have only ever seen one minus its head and still moving in the vinyard near Spartilas. Jackals are extremely rare in Greece found in Samos and Corfu.I can imagine they live on the plateux of the Pantocrator away from people and there dogs,im thinking about setting up an infared camera up in the hope of catching one on film up there,do you think this is the best area? Ive just come back from America photographing Yellowstone Wolves,theres none on Corfu but they are on the Greek mainland. Regards Stuart
Hello Matt
Waiting for you to contact me about our mystery terrapin/turtle. Hope that you saw the pictures on the Agni Greece Corfu site under “Corfu turtles” and in the epicture egallery for my posting name “opportunity”.
Sylvia
Unfortunately the golden jackal(Canis aureus) has disapeared from Corfu Island and the whole western Greece except the Peloponnese. The last records from Corfu date back from the 1980s(southern part of the island). On Pantokrator you can still find the red fox(Vulpes vulpes), the beech marten(Martes foina), the common weasel(Mustela nivalis), the brown hare(Lepus europaeus), the balkan mole(Talpa stankovici), the eastern hedgehog(Erinaceus concolor) etc.
I live in the North of Corfu, surrounded by lovely Olive Trees and near the village of Roda. We have seen hares in the back garden, foxes on a few occasions as well as the lovely tortoises, hedgehogs and hoopoes that visit us. We have found Scops owls on the road and seen many barn owls at rest. I’m personally not too keen on the many snakes we find, as our beloved dog was killed by one, but realise it’s only the viper that proves a real threat.
Hi Jane,
Great to hear that you have so much wildlife around your home, I am especially fond of the singing of the Scops owl and every now and then I am actually able to see them! Sorry to hear about the death of your dog, this does occasionally happen, and often most dogs survive the bite of a Nose-horned viper. It is just one of those things, one animal getting a little too close to another that feels threatened. If you would like to know the identity of any snakes you see around your home please drop me an email or visit my photo galleries from Corfu so that you can establish what you having living near to you.
Matt
Great job.
We have just returned from 2 weeks in Agios Georgios north, Corfu and was surprised to see only 1 live snake this year (back end only and un-identified but large. Last year at the same time we were always seeing them including 5 Four-lined Snakes. My wife bravely (and quickly) took a snap photo of one nearly 2 metres long coming towards her on a very narrow path in long grass.
I am sending a photo of a dead snake which had been killed by someone. Is it a Montpellier ?
Also this year many residents are talking about small (about 30cm) black snakes with red on their heads which they say are very poisonous. Can you suggest what they might be? They also say that a lot of these had been dropped very recently by ‘balloons’ by the Ecological Dept. Have you heard of that before?
Hi Dennis,
I envy your sightings on Corfu.
Please don’t listen to locals about snakes, there are so many ridiculous stories and if I believed them I’d be terrified of snakes too. I was in Lemnos a few weeks ago and a local Greek stopped and started yelling at us that we were ecologists releasing snakes on the island. This is a very widely distributed and stupid belief in Greece, I have no idea where it came from but it is complete nonsense. In fact in Corfu people have also accused me of bringing snakes to the island and releasing them, it doesn’t even occur to them that the snakes there are native no matter how many times I try to explain.
I didn’t recieve any email from you, here is my address again: mjwilsonherp1@yahoo.co.uk
Many thanks for your interest,
Matt
Hello!
I am a local, born and raised in Corfu and I would like to defend myself on behalf of the locals regarding the apparent terror that might be spread on snakes.
We have been educated from a young age about snakes and if someone is to blame for our “misinformation” then that is the authorities, the state and the doctors.
It was in primary school, where we learned the dangers of vipers and what to do in case of a bite. Everyone knows better than to go near a viper, especially one that has no way of escape.
That does not mean that we are afraid of snakes, nor that we promote any fear about them. I have been living in peace with snakes in a meadow by the sea, and most vipers I came across where in a hurry to escape from me.
The only time that I feel fear is when they come near our door, which has happened only twice in 7 years. In such a case, we kill them, to avoid the risk of them entering the house. That is not paranoia though, that is a healthy type of fear.
Better safe than sorry!
I came across many Germans who believed that the poison of a viper is harmless. However, our doctors here advise that is can be fatal to humans as is also mentioned in the wikipedia article on vipera ammodytos. So if you want to make your case about snake-terror, you have to take it up with them!!
)
Best Wishes
Angelina
Hi Matt
Do Chameleons occur in Corfu?
Thanks
Ed
Hi Ed,
No, Chameleons do not occur on Corfu, or anywhere in the Ionian. African chameleons which are highly endangered, occur on the Peloponnese mainland. Whereas the Common chameleon may be found on Samos, and perhaps even Crete.
Matt
Hi Matt!
I ‘m from Corfu.
Trully wonderful job that you ‘ve done! And fantastic pictures!
Didn’t you see any Laudakia stellio?
It’s quite common in the center of the island.
Although it’s out of topic I’d like to know if you met any foxes during your excursions on Corfu.
I’m afraid they have disappeared.
Oh and since jackals are mentioned above, I saw on the site of European Environment Agency the jackal (Canis aureus) being included in the list of species mentioned in Korission lake.
Little chance for this to be true but who knows.
Regards.
During 2 weeks in Agios Georgios north in May and many walks we saw only 1 live snake, a grass snake. Possible the weather has not been suitable ?
Once again several local people said the snake to avoid is a small black one about 30cm long !!
I am not aware of one like this. What do you you think they mean Matt?
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Usually locals are referring to the Oxia, or Nose-horned viper, although many of them think that Slow worms (Konaki) are equally deadly! In short, don’t pay too much attention to what many of the locals tell you about snakes, especially if they seem to have a phobia. The only dangerous snake on Corfu is the viper, which is quite small, but not an aggressive animal at all and totally undeserving of its evil reputation in the Balkans.
In May I found the weather to be quite suitable for reptiles, but it is often a matter of luck, so perhaps you didn’t have too much
Matt
Matt
Thank you for the reply. Actually it is the UK-ex-pats which keep passing on this “helpful” information but presumably they have
been “reliably informed” by local people !! It seems to be a fairly widespread belief . I would like to help dispel it if possible through my web-site “About Agios Georgios north, Corfu”.
I had wondered if it was the harmless slowworm which was getting the blame here as they can appear very dark. Are black versions of Oxia very common. I have only seen dead lighter versions around the area in question and all have been considerably larger than 30cm more like 60. Would examples that small be youngsters or can adults be as small as 30cms?