Lizarding in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Hi all, it's already two years since my last post. Sorry about that. Not that I haven't done nothing. I was busy writing up my Master thesis on Persian leopards and that took me a quite a while.. but that's another story. For now, I want to give you some impressions about lizarding in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I am assisting a PhD student in her field work catching and studying lizards (Smaragdeidechse, Lacerta viridis): measuring body, scale and pore counting, taking blood samples, noting the habitat temperature and GPS position. Quite interesting weren't there this exhausting catching part in thorny habitat. Must be quite funny to look at us circling these green bastards. Anyway, here are some impressions from Plovdiv and lizards:

Alyosha monument

View over Plovdiv

  

Roman Amphitheatre (roman city Phillippopolis = Plovdiv)

Memorial in Trilistinik

View to Trilistnik

View to Plovdiv (the tiny hills..)

Easter tradition?

Plovdiv!

Dom na kulturata (Kulturhaus)

big plates of chinease food for 3€

Trilistnik + foto model ;)

Plovdiv

 

Central Balkan Mountains with Botev Peak (Plovdivs football club is called after this mountain)

Trilistinik

very important Balkan coffee in the morning

nowhere near Plovdiv

 

DDR shop in old town Plovdiv

our flat in "Plattenbausiedlung" in Plovdiv south

Banitza!!

very important among taxi drivers .. football betting

old town Plovdiv

male L. viridis

 

 

Rhodope Mountains

 

snowy Balkan Mountains

thorny shrubs and the lizards in the middle

 

female L. viridis

one of our habitats .. can you see them?

uuuuh, it's a boy (there is a "hemipenis")

a little one

 

and yes, they are snappy bastards!