Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

is a country in

southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...

situated entirely in the Balkan peninsula. The country is inhabited by 38 reptilian species, which makes reptiles the second least diverse

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

of vertebrates in the country, after Bulgaria's amphibians. The list includes four species that have not been recorded in the country since the first half of the 20th century – the

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

, green sea turtle, aspic viper and meadow viper. There are four

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...

and two

tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like oth ...

species of four families –

Cheloniidae Cheloniidae is a family of typically large marine turtles that are characterised by their common traits such as, having a flat streamlined wide and rounded shell and almost paddle-like flippers for their forelimbs. They are the only sea turtles t ...

, Emydidae,

Geoemydidae The Geoemydidae (formerly known as Bataguridae) are one of the largest and most diverse families in the order Testudines (turtles), with about 70 species. The family includes the Eurasian pond and river turtles and Neotropical wood turtles. Mem ...

and Testudinidae; fourteen lizard species of four families –

Anguidae Anguidae refers to a large and diverse family of lizards native to the Northern Hemisphere. Common characteristics of this group include a reduced supratemporal arch, striations on the medial faces of tooth crowns, osteoderms, and a lateral fold ...

Gekkonidae Gekkonidae (the common geckos) is the largest family of geckos, containing over 950 described species in 64 genera. Members of the Gekkonidae comprise many of the most widespread gecko species, including house geckos ('' Hemidactylus''), tokay g ...

, Lacertidae and Scincidae; and eighteen

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

species of four families –

Boidae The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anacond ...

, Colubridae,

Typhlopidae The Typhlopidae are a family of blind snakes. They are found mostly in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and all mainland Australia and various islands. The rostral scale overhangs the mouth to form a shovel-like burrowing str ...

and

Viperidae The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs th ...

. In addition, in recent years one turtle species, the North American

pond slider The pond slider (''Trachemys scripta'') is a species of common, medium-sized, semiaquatic turtle. Three subspecies are described, the most recognizable of which is the red-eared slider (''T. s. elegans''), which is popular in the pet trade and h ...

, has been observed in numerous bodies of water all over the country; it has not reproduced successfully in the country and is not included in the list. The other two extant orders,

Crocodilia Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest livi ...

and Rhynchocephalia, are not represented in Bulgaria. The foundations of Bulgarian herpetology, or studies of amphibians and reptiles, were laid in the end of the 19th century by the teacher , who published a number of articles on the subject and the 1912 book ''Herpetologic Fauna of Bulgaria''.Biserkov, 2007, p. 28 In the 1930s and 1940s, the zoologist Ivan Buresh and his associate Yordan Tsonkov conducted in-depth research on the diversity and distribution of the amphibian and reptile species in the country. In the second half of the 20th century the leading Bulgarian herpetologist was Dr. Vladimir Beshkov. Bulgaria provides various habitats for reptiles. The country falls within six terrestrial

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s of the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...

: Balkan mixed forests,

Rodope montane mixed forests The Rodope montane mixed forests is a terrestrial ecoregion of Europe defined by the WWF. It belongs in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome and the Palearctic realm. Geography The Rodope mountane mixed forests cover the higher parts ...

, Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests,

Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests The Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in the lands around the Aegean Sea. The ecoregion covers most of mainland Greece, the Greek Aegean Islands (except for Crete), the western coast of Turkey, the southe ...

East European forest steppe The East European forest steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0419) is a patchwork of broadleaf forest stands and grasslands (steppe) that stretches 2,100 km across eastern Europe from the Ural Mountains in Ural, through Povolzhye, Central Russia to the m ...

, and

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian steppe, formed by the Caspian steppe and the Pontic steppe, is the steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea. It extend ...

. Bulgaria has varied topography. From north to south the main geomorphological regions are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Sub-Balkan valleys, the Rila–

Rhodope Rhodope may refer to: * Rhodope (mythology), a figure of Greek mythology * Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria and Greece * Rhodope (regional unit) Rhodope ( el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodópi'' ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the reg ...

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

to the south-west, the

Upper Thracian Plain The Upper Thracian Plain ( bg, Горнотракийска низина, ''Gornotrakiyska nizina'') constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between Sredna Gora mountains to the north ...

and the Strandzha mountains to the south-east. Most of the country is situated within the

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

region, with

Alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions o ...

in the highest mountains and

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

in the southernmost regions. The highest diversity of reptiles is recorded in southernmost Bulgaria – the valley of the river Struma, the eastern Rhodope Mountains, the southern reaches of the river

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( bg, Марица ), also known as Meriç ( tr, Meriç ) and Evros ( ell, Έβρος ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservatio ...

of species is based on their placement in one of the following categories from the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. : – Extinct : – Critically endangered : –

Near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify f ...

: – Data deficient : –

Not evaluated A not evaluated (NE) species is one which has been categorized under the IUCN Red List of threatened species as not yet having been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This conservation category is one of nine IUCN th ...

: – Extinct in the wild : –

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

: – Vulnerable : –

Least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Most of the reptile species found in Bulgaria have been categorised as least concern or not evaluated. Four species are near-threatened (the

European pond turtle The European pond turtle (''Emys orbicularis''), also called commonly the European pond terrapin and the European pond tortoise, is a species of long-living freshwater turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is endemic to the Western Palearc ...

, meadow lizard,

four-lined snake ''Elaphe quatuorlineata'' (common names: four-lined snake, Bulgarian ratsnake) is a member of the family Colubridae. The four-lined snake is a non-venomous species and one of the largest of the European snakes. Description The species' common ...

and

Hermann's tortoise Hermann's tortoise (''Testudo hermanni'') is a species of tortoise. Two subspecies are known: the western Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. hermanni'' ) and the eastern Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. boettgeri'' ). Sometimes mentioned as a subspecies, ...

), two species have been designated vulnerable (the meadow viper and

spur-thighed tortoise The Greek tortoise (''Testudo graeca''), also known commonly as the spur-thighed tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. ''Testudo graeca'' is one of five species of Mediterranean tortoises ( genera '' Testudo'' and '' A ...

) and two species are classified as endangered (the

and green sea turtle).

Order Testudines

Family Cheloniidae

are a family of sea turtles with worldwide distribution in all tropical oceans. The family contains seven species in five genera, of which two species have been recorded in the waters off the

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coast ...

Family Emydidae

Emydidae, also known as pond or march turtles, are a family of fresh water turtles. With the exception of two species, they are only found in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

. There are close to 50 species in 10 genera, of which one species occurs in Bulgaria.

Family Geoemydidae

are one of the largest and most diverse turtle families. They are distributed in North America, northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, northwestern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. The family contains about 70 species in 19 genera, of which one species occurs in Bulgaria.

Family Testudinidae

Testudinidae, also known as tortoises, are a family of land-dwelling turtles found in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. They are terrestrial and inhabit warm areas ranging from rain forests to deserts. The family contains about 50 species in 11 genera, of which 2 species are found in Bulgaria.

Order Squamata

Suborder Lacertilia

Family Anguidae

are a family of legless lizards distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. The group includes both egg-laying and viviparous species. There are 73 species in 10 genera, of which three species occur in Bulgaria.

Family Gekkonidae

are a large family of small to mid-size geckos. They have global distribution with particular diversity in tropical areas. Gekkonidae include 1033 species in 51 genera, of which one species is found in Bulgaria.

Family Lacertidae

Lacertidae are a family of true lizards or wall lizards native to Europe, Asia and Africa. The European and Mediterranean species inhabit mainly

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and scrub habitats. There are 321 species in 37 genera, of which nine species occur in Bulgaria.Biserkov, 2007, p. 91

Family Scincidae

Scincidae are a cosmopolitan family occurring in a variety of habitats worldwide, apart from boreal and polar regions. With 1589 species, of which one is found in Bulgaria, Scincidae are among the most diverse lizard families.

Suborder Serpentes

Family Boidae

are a family of nonvenomous snakes found in America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. There are 58 species in 8 genera, of which one species occurs in Bulgaria.

Family Colubridae

Colubridae are a family of snakes with worldwide distribution found on every continent except

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. There are 844 species in 118 genera, of which 12 species occur in Bulgaria.

Family Typhlopidae

are a family of blind snakes found mostly in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia and various islands. There are 381 species in 29 genera, of which one species is native to Bulgaria and Europe.Biserkov, 2007, p. 109

Family Viperidae

are a family of

venomous snake Venomous snakes are species of the suborder Serpentes that are capable of producing venom, which they use for killing prey, for defense, and to assist with digestion of their prey. The venom is typically delivered by injection using hollow or g ...

s found worldwide, except in Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii and various other isolated islands. They include 329 species in 33 genera, of which four species occur in Bulgaria.Biserkov, 2007, p. 130

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reptiles Of Bulgaria

Lists of biota of Bulgaria

Reptiles