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Dust and heat - Summer in Kazakhstan

For a couple of years Niklas and I had the idea to visit Kazakhstan in order to see some different subspecies/localities of the Steppe viper (Vipera renardi.) After visiting Eurasian steppe and the seeing incredible diversity of species within it in different European countries, this interest in visiting Kazakhstan only grew over time. So in early 2024 Judy, Niklas and I made the decision to go on a trip to Eastern Kazakhstan. After seeing and hearing about the succesfull trip our Hungarian friends had there, we were very excited to visit the country. Plans were made and we decided to fly to Almaty, then drive all the way up north to the Altay mountains to see Vipera renardi altaica and possibly the nominate form of Vipera renardi there. Furthermore we wanted to explore the arid areas near Almaty to see Vipera renardi tienshanica along with a wide range of fascinating lizards and snakes. Along with these targets, the landscapes and scenery which were expecting us in Kazakhstan were a very exciting promise. I haven't been this excited for a herping trip since my first visit to Georgia and so stakes were high, when we flew to Almaty in August 2024.

Almaty and the drive up north

Arriving in Almaty after short night in the plane, we were in for a bad suprise, as my bag was lost during the stopover in Doha. We already had the entire trip planned out, booked accomodations and no day to spare. So we tried to cancel what we were able to and decided to find a hotel nearby to hopefully pick up my bag the next day. At the airport, we met with Karime Abdulkova who was kind enough to organize a driver for us: Alexey. Alexey was a very good driver and a great guy with a Mitsubishi Delica, that fitted all our baggage and camping equipment easily. However, unexpectedly, Alexey did not speak english, which was no big problem but lead to a couple of hilarous google translator sessions, with everyone usually being more confused afterwards. Within our first drive, the second larger issue, after the lost bag occured: the AC of Alexeys car broke in 38° C heat. After trying a couple dodgy hotels, we were able to locate a adequate accomodation outside of the city. Despite the short night in the plane, we did not sleep much that night. The next morning the weather had changed. Despite the forcast beeing all sunny, clouds were rolling in, so we quickly drove to a habitat of Vipera renardi tienshanica nearby and a after a relatively long herping session, we were able to turn up two of these beatiful little vipers. With our luck finally changing, I received a call from the airport - my bag has finally arrived! We euphorically picked up the bag, and drove around 4 hours northwards, stopping at some nice habitats along the way, sadly with no major finds. After a long day with little sleep the night before and a lot of heat, we finally were able to get some sleep.

The longest drive

After finally having a good night of sleep, we continued our drive to the North. The further north we got, the worse the condition of the road, but it was no problem with our "trusty" Mitsubishi Delica. After about 6 hours of driving, clouds started to cover the sky, so we stoped along the road for a short herping session. To our surprise despite the great habitat and good conditions, we were unable to detect any snakes. The only reptiles we found were very shy Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis exigua). After a while we gave up, drove further and decided to make dinner at a lake close to the road. After arriving at our accomodation late that night, we checked the weather and again things started looking up, as more clouds were promised for the next day.

Vipera renardi what?

The next day we woke up early and excited. This was the day we might be able to see our main target of the trip, the nominate form of the Steppe viper (Vipera renardi renardi). Judging by the pictures of a specimen found at the site we were visiting, we were positive, that this was the subspecies we could expect there. However, this proved to be a bit naive. When we arrived at the viper habitat, clouds were still rather dense, but, after about 15 minutes, the sky was completely clear and microhabitats were heating up quickly. Luckily, Judy found another target of the trip, Kazakhstans weirdest insect: Saga pedo. This was a welcome find and after some pictures, we proceeded our quest for the viper. After quite a while, Judy finally yelled "I have a viper, I think its an adder!". Since adders (Vipera berus) were known from nearby, this was not impossible, although we had hoped to find something else. Luckily, upon further examination the viper proved to be what we were looking for...in a way. It was definately a Steppe viper, but none of us was able to determine the exact subspecies. In the midday heat we ate some lunch with Alexey, who was fishing with some new friends by a small lake. It was fish for him and noodles with pesto for us, as basically on every day of the trip. After lunch we drove to a site for ground squirrels and could not hold ourselves from herping, as we knew, that adders were supposed to occur in this area. We did not find any adders, but unexpectedly found a Siberian pit-viper (Gloydius halys). This species for some reason was not on our target list, so we were quite stunned by it. I had no idea how fascinating these snakes were, it was the perfect end to the first day in the North!

The best day in Kazakhstan

The next morning, conditions were even better than the day before: some slight rain and cloudy weather afterwards. We drove back to the Steppe viper habitat from the day before, since we wanted to find more vipers and find out, which subspecies we found there. Upon arrival, conditions were right about perfect and we split up in search of vipers. I had no time to check my habitats, as Niklas found a viper pretty much as he arrived in his spot. Before I got there, he found a second one, a melanistic male! And right as I was approaching a third - a juvenile. Despite expecting to find these small vipers in pure grassland, all were found in a small rocky patch, indicating what we had already feared the day before: this was not the nominate form of the Steppe viper. A couple of scale counts later we were quite confident to say that we had found the Altay viper (Vipera renardi 'altaica'). This probable subspecies (maybe just ecotype) of the Steppe viper has been described as a seperate species in 2010. Further research (e.g. Zinenko et al. 2015) has proven it to simply be a Steppe viper with probable introgression from Vipera berus. After finding the "cheatcode" to find these vipers, we went on to the an identical patch of rocks. There however, we found no more Steppe vipers, but two Siberian pit-vipers. One of these pit-vipers must have been over 80 cm long, exceeding the size I had expected these vipers to achieve. In the evening, we once again visited the gorund squirrel site, this time actually taking the time to find them. Especially Judy was very keen on seeing these small mammals and her patience payed off, as we observed them from short distance near a dirt road. It was by far the most succesfull day in Kazakhstan!

The longest drive II, no AC = no fun

On the third day in the North, our streak of luck was sadly over. The weather prediction the days before promised us rainy conditions in the Altay mountains, however, they suddenly changed and a heatwave was approaching. Without a single cloud and a UV index of 7, we found zero reptiles that moring. Our original plan was to move on to the terra typica of the Altay viper, but the heatwave (and some convincing from Judy and Niklas) lead to us driving back towards Almaty, where conditions were expected to be cooler. The drive however disproved these hopes, as temperatures reached 40° C outside the car. Inside the car, as the AC broke again, the temperature was 42° C. After 10 hours of collective denaturation, Alexey managed to fix the AC with some parts he bought at a friends shop. It was the worst drive I ever had to endure. We stayed at the same hotel as on the way up North, because it had AC and as our body temperatures dropped, our minds came back. With weather predictions hotter each day, we still decided to drive towards Almaty, since we could look for some nocturnal species there. The next day we arrived at an accomodation near the arid habitats around Almaty. This place, contrary to its appearence online, was incredibly dodgy, trashy and hostile, so we decided to rather drive to the habitat of Vipera renardi tienshanica we had already visited and camped there in the heat. 

Almaty II

The next morning was sunny again. The heat woke us around sunrise, so we went for a short birding session. European rollers and Isabelline shrikes were among the most common birds there. Just after we decided to leave the spot, we saw something on the horizon - clouds!!! And those clouds came with some cold wind as well! Nevertheless, it took up to 2 hours, before the microhabitats started cooling off and the vipers came back. After beeing chased by wasps I managed to finally find another viper. And shortly after a second one. Judy and Niklas decided to focus more on insect photography, which was definately the better option. Fed up with the last accomodation, we decided to book a rather expensive hotel. That night, we went to a sandy area in the arids. As we arrived, we had a bit of rain and found the first amphibians in this area of Kazakhstan: Xinjiang toads (Bufotes pewzowi). It took no longer than 5 minutes until we found our second target: the common wonder gecko (Teratoscincus scincus). Judy always wanted to track snakes in the sand and so, while I was keen on finding more geckos, she checked the sand for tracks. After a while I heard heard some indistinct yelling and upon further investigation found a happy Judy with her first Dwarf sand boa (Eryx miliaris). A fascinating snake, that can burry into the ground astonishingly quick given its generally undynamic body shape. The next day I woke up to a message from Alexey. "I found this in my room" with a picture attached. There was something under a glass in that picture, but expecting a spider, I set my phone aside and snoozed a bit longer. After waking up for good, I checked my phone again ... there was a bat under that glass! We went to Alexeys room, where he explained to us (pantomimically) that he had caught the bat with his hands, after it had appeared above his bed in the middle of the night and flew around the room. We explained to him, why this wasn't the best idea (rabies and all other imagineable diseases) and escorted the bat in the glass towards the window. There were some old trees right outside and we hoped, it may find some secure hiding spot there. I opened the window and a second bat fell on the floor. Bats 3 and 4 were climbing around the frame of the window. Bat 5 was at the bottom of the curtain and bats 6-10 were hanging out inside a wrinkle of said curtain. There were 10 bats in that room! It was 40 degrees outside, we suspect, they may have entered through the AC. Apart from that, not much happened that day and in the evening Alexey drove Niklas to the airport, while we hoped to get some food in the Hotel restaurant, which (like the entire town) was in a blackout.

Mountain fail

The next day, Alexey, Judy and I drove towards Alexey's home village to start a tour to the mountains the next day. We brought our camping equipment to stay there for 3-5 nights. He told us that he knew an area where he and his son had regularly seen Snow leopards. It rained for the first time that day and although we had no chance to find reptiles, we really enjoyed the cool weather. We stayed in the village for the night and began driving up the terribly bad in shape mountain roads the second day. At first, we were optimistic we would make it, but the road just kept getting worse. After around 10 km, the road was essentially made up entirely by large rocks, the size of basketballs, which shook the car all over. Finally, desaster struck and the cooling tank of the Delica exploded, resulting in a large fountain. While we were a bit concerned, Alexey laughed and just shoutet "gaizier, gaizier!". Although we werent able to reach our destination, he made sure to make the best of it and so with a heatwave in the lowlands, we camped in the cool mountains or 3 nights. While we explored the slopes, only finding a couple of sand lizards, Alexey spent the days fishing by the creek. We had no idea whether Alexey was able to fix the car, but on the third day he simply glued the tank back together and drove us back down to the village.

The final day(s)

On the day before we left, we visited a small gorge near Alexey's village. Although we did not find any interesting reptiles there, the scenery was worth making the stop. That night, we checked out a rocky area near Almaty in search of geckos. Our targets were quickly found: Caspian even-fingered gecko (Alsophylax pipiensis) and Transcaspian bent-toed gecko (Mediodactylus russowii) along with many more Wonder geckos. It was a great last night! We camped in a grassland that our friends Laura and Bobby had visited about two weeks earlier. The next morning we compared their pictures to the scenery and were quikly confronted with the consequences of a two-week heatwave. Habitats were incredibly dry and brown. In the late morning finally some clouds rolled in and on this final day, after seven days we finally found another snake: a juvenile Asian steppe viper. It was found alongside a Steppe tortoise (Testudo horsfieldii). 

After this final stop, we drove to Almaty, explored the city with Alexey and flew back late at night.

In conclusion, it was a very exhausting, but exciting trip.

Given the circumstances we pretty much found all our target species and got to see many parts of this fascinating country!

I would like to very much thank Judy, Niklas and Alexey for this experience.

Furthermore, huge thanks to Laura and Bobby Bok, Karime Abidkulova, Edvárd Mizsei, Gergő Rak, Gergő Kovács, Balínt Wenner, Mátyás Budai, Michael Schmolz and Gleb Bolbotov for all their help and support.

See more photography from this trip in my EASTBOUND gallery: