‘Large’ and ‘highly venomous’ creature found in Greece mountains for first time
A video of a seemingly out-of-place creature in the mountains of eastern Greece led scientists to discover a new population of “large” and “highly venomous” animals.
The first-of-its-kind record has “important implications” for conservation and public safety.
Ioannis Kazas contacted a team of researchers in June 2024 for help identifying “a snake filmed near the village of Aggitis,” according to a study published Aug. 4 in the peer-reviewed journal Herpetozoa.
To the team’s surprise, the video “clearly depicted a juvenile Ottoman viper,” the study said. It was the first time the species had been recorded around Aggitis.
Ottoman vipers, or Montivipera xanthina, are a “large” species of “highly venomous snake” primarily found in Turkey and a limited part of mainland Greece, at least 80 miles away from Aggitis, researchers said.
At first, researchers thought the Ottoman viper in Aggitis was a one-off sighting “from an accidental introduction,” the study said, but they decided to do follow-up surveys to verify.
During these visits in October 2024 and March 2025, the team encountered three more Ottoman vipers around Aggitis. A photo shows one of these snakes, a “large male.”
Researchers concluded that the Ottoman vipers around Aggitis were part of a “newly discovered” but “established population,” the study said. The snakes had likely reached the area through a “narrow ecological corridor” of rocky habitats and mountain foothills.
“Our findings underscore the underexplored biodiversity” of eastern Greece, researchers said.
Additionally, the discovery of Ottoman vipers in Drama Prefecture “has important implications for conservation planning, biodiversity assessment, and public health preparedness.”
Aggitis, a village in Drama Prefecture of eastern Greece, is a roughly 415-mile drive northeast from Athens.
The research team included Ilias Strachinis, Dionisios Iakovidis, Nikolaos Gogolos, Athanasios Papagoras and Thomas Daftsios.
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 9:49 AM with the headline "‘Large’ and ‘highly venomous’ creature found in Greece mountains for first time."
