Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
HERPETOLOGICAL CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY, cilt.20, sa.2, ss.393-412, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
A guilt of three phenotypically and ecologically similar, but phylogenetically distinct lineages of grassland vipers inhabit Western Asia: Tiirkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. Their official threat statuses were assessed > 14 y ago by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2025): Anatolian Steppe Viper Vipera anatolica (CR: Critically Endangered, one of only 10 globally with that status), Southern Steppe Viper V. renardi eriwanensis (sensu lato; VU: Vulnerable), and Darevsky's Viper V. darevskii (CR). Nonetheless, information on their distribution, ecology and systematics has remained scarce, a situation seriously affecting effective conservation strategies. Ten years ago, we began building a database by screening literature and online/social media accounts, improving precision of published records by contacting article/account authors, and complementing it with our own records from annual field expeditions. Herein we summarize the largely increased information on the first two vipers, V. anatolica and V. renardi eriwanensis (sensu lato), latter encompassing all populations south of the Greater Caucasus previously assigned to taxa eriwanensis, shemakhensis, and ebneri. In total, we present 293 localities at > 0.5 km (anatolica) and 1 km (eriwanensis) distance between localities, including three (anatolica) and 95 new localities (eriwanensis). Furthermore, with new details from journal and social media records, we refined/published 16 (anatolica) and 175 (eriwanensis) localities, respectively. Comprehensive distribution updates and some genetic data on the eriwanensis complex allowed a finer taxonomic evaluation and detection of a first hybridization (contact zone) with V. r. lotievi, all of which ultimately helps to better tailor conservation needs.