![]() Vipers showed a temporal shift in their bimodal daily activity pattern as they were active earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon than could be expected based on the thermal conditions. The temporal overlap between predator and viper activity was much greater for the vipers’ potential activity than their realised activity. ![]() The occurrence of injuries was significantly positively influenced by the body length of vipers, and was more frequent on females than on males, while the interaction of length and sex showed a significant negative effect. We found injuries and wounds on 12.5% of the studied individuals (n = 319). We observed n = 12 raptor bird species foraging at the study sites, of which Circaetus gallicus, Falco tinnunculus and Corvus cornix were directly observed as predators of V. graeca individuals is modified by predation pressure. We aimed to determine the main potential and observed predators of Vipera graeca, to infer predation pressure by estimating the incidence and the body length and sex distribution of predation events based on body injuries, and to assess whether and how the activity of V. However, this implies costs of lost opportunities for foraging, reproduction, and thermoregulation. In reptiles, basking time often increases the risk of predation and one way to minimise this risk is to reduce activity time and to stay within a refuge. ![]() Understanding predator–prey relationships is fundamental in many areas of ecology and conservation.
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