CP in Bosnia and Montenegro

[miso]

Hi All!

I plane expedition to Bosnia and Montenegro, so I would like to ask you about any information as CPs localities,... every advice is good...

thanks,

miso

[Guest]

Bosnia has many mountains, lakes, valleys, forests than you could ever imagine. It depends where you are going if you are likely to find anything. However, finding anything would be extremely difficult-traversing the great mountains is not only difficult but also dangerous, as wolves, bears, deadly vipers and other mountains prowl in the mountains and valleys and will not hesitate to attack you! However, I would imagine P. crystallina and balcanica may exist there-but where you could find them I do not know.

Montenegro is next to and has a very similar climate along the coast as Croatia does along its coast(I presume you're visiting the coast of Montenegro?) so the best thing to do is to research about the types of CP's that occur in Croatia and where they can be found, chances are you will find the same CP's in Montenegro as you do in Croatia.

[Rob-Rah]

Wolves and bears occur in comparatively small numbers in these countries now, and they also usually avoid humans. I wouldn't worry about that aspect of travel in the two countries at all.

The problem in Bosnia is one of infrastructure. The country is exceedingly mountainous, and landmine clearance is not complete. To get very much off the beaten track, you could do worse than look into the excursions put on by these people, some of which look really rather good: http://www.greenvisions.ba

As for Montenegro, I spent a while in the Durmitor National Park, and pottering around the coast, but failed to notice any CPs there (plenty of nice wild orchids though!). I expect that around Lake Skadar has a better variety of suitable areas. I would be willing to place money on there being utricularia and drosera species around the Lake margins, and I believe it is also one of the surviving European habitats of Aldrovanda.

The issue of habitat is the problem. As far as I know, most European CPs favour acidic bog-type conditions. The limestone and karst of the Dinaric alps and inland from there means there is almost no peat bog habitat. The most likely CPs would be Pinguicula.

[Rob-Rah]

I don't know how to say all this without the risk of causing offence... No, bears and wolves are not that kind of threat. Their hatred is mythologised in South East Europe, and they are demonised, for no good reason. Well, probably to do with livestock losses. But its so culturally entrenched now. I would be prepared to say that the instances you gave are probably in fact not true. Urban legends. Embellishments of otehr events. The cultural attitudes towards these animals make it very unreliable to believe what the local people tell you, and hard statistics backed up by real report do not generally back them up.

In the Carpathians, where there are many times more wolves than in the Bosnia, there has been one *substantiated* wolf attack on a human in the last 50 years, and this was due to direct provocation (see the articles below). There are only a few hundred wolves in all of Bosnia, and the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe tells us how hard it is to encounter wolves (http://www.lcie.org) in the region. This is their factsheets about bears in the region:

http://www.lcie.org/Docs/Brochures/Bears%20in%20Croatia.pdf

These two articles might be of interest too:

http://www.ce-review.org/01/14/beckmann14_2.html

http://www.ce-review.org/01/14/beckmann14_1.html

The most interesting fact is how many hundreds more people are shot by hunters out hunting wolves than who ever encounter the animals themselves.

Sadly no orchid photos! I tend to visit the region at the wrong times of year, and my "travelling" camera is not suitable for plant photography (it is no use less than around 6 feet away, and most plants are then too small in the frame!).

With best wishes.

[Guest Sheila]

......... and other mountains prowl in the mountains and valleys and will not hesitate to attack you! .

Bosnia must be a dangerous place, I've never heard of mountains laying in wait ready to attack anywhere else in the world

[miso]

thanks for info about dangerous animals,... i am ready for meeting with... (it would be not first time, to be botanist - it is dangerous occupation). and what about plants? do you know some interesting endemic plants localities?