Dmitrović Dejan

Goran Šukalo

Sonja Đorđević

Tomović Ljiljana

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Hyla VOL. 2012., No. 2, Str.41 - 42 ISSN: 1848-2007 Photo note   41   Introduced fish Ameiurus nebulosus (LE SUEUR, 1819): hazard to the Grass snake, Natrix natrix (LAURENTI, 1768)  Introducirana vrsta Ameiurus nebulosus (LE SUEUR, 1819): opasnost za bjeloušku, Natrix natrix (LAURENTI, 1768)  GORAN ŠUKALO1, SONJA ĐORĐEVIĆ2,3, DEJAN DMITROVIĆ1, LJILJANA TOMOVIĆ2,3  1 Faculty of Science, University of Banja Luka, Mladena Stojanovića 2, 78000 Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, sukalogoran@yahoo.com  2 Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia 3 Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia  On April 2nd 2012, in the marsh ecosystem known as Bardača (45˚04' N, 17˚24' E, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina), in a channel used for water discharge from the Rakitovac lake, unusually large numbers of fish were observed. The fish presumably got caught in the channel due to rapid lowering of the water level. The prevalent species was the brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) belonging to the Ictaluridae family, which is non-indigenous (allochthonous) in the Balkans. Along the channel several grass snakes (Natrix natrix) were found, some of which had a body wall pierced at various positions (Fig. 1). The damage was inflicted by the stiff spiny rays of the dorsal and pectoral fins of the bullhead, fed on by grass snakes. One of the snakes succumbed to these injuries (Fig 1. b, c). Injuries resembling the ones described here were documented for the North American snake Nerodia taxispilota, caused also by native catfish from the Ictaluridae family (MILLS, 2002). Lethal outcome was also recorded in viperine water snake, Natrix maura in Spain, resulting from the ingestion of two allochthonous fishes – pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus) (SANTOS & GARCÍA-CARDENETE, 2005) and the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) (ALARCOS ET AL., 2009). The data we present consider Natrix natrix; the closely related N. tessellata often occupies the same habitats, therefore we expect to reveal feeding on bullheads and other alien species in the dice snake as well.   REFRENCES ALARCOS, G., ÁLVAREZ-COLLADO, F., FLECHOSO, M. F., MADRIGAL, J., & LIZANA, M. (2009): Peces exóticos de la familia Centrarchidae, un peligro para Natrix maura. Boletín de la Asociación Herpetológica Española 20: 95-97. MILLS, M.S. (2002): Ecology and life history of the brown water snake (Nerodia taxispilota). PhD dissertation. University of Georgia. SANTOS, X. & GARCÍA-CARDENETE, L. (2005): ntroducción de peces en ríos de la Cuenca mediterránea: una amenaza para sus depredadores. Boletín de la Asociación Herpetológica Española 16: 50-51. Šukalo et al.  42   Figure 1. Grass snake injuries in various parts of the body as a consequence of ingesting the brown bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus: a) live specimen with bullhead in its belly, b) & c) specimen found dead with bullhead in mouth Slika 1. Ozljede različitih dijelova tijela kod bjelouške, kao posljedica gutanja američkog somića, Ameiurus nebulosus: a) živi primjerak sa somićem u trbuhu, b) & c) primjerak pronađen mrtav sa somićem u ustima  

Introducirana vrsta Ameiurus nebulosus (LE SUEUR, 1819): opasnost za bjeloušku, Natrix natrix (LAURENTI, 1768)

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