Do juvenile four-lined snakes Elaphe quatuorlineata mimic their sympatric viper?

Abstract

In this note, we describe a case of a juvenile four-lined snake, Elaphe quatuorlineata (Lacépède, 1789) displaying bluffing behaviour. Besides providing a description of the context which elicited the behaviour, we argue that this could be a case of Batesian mimicry between juvenile E. quatuorlineata and the sympatric nose-horned viper, Vipera ammodytes meridionalis (Boulenger, 1903) due to the close geographical association between these species, similar colour pattern and defensive behaviours.