Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads. To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal.
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus Aquila. Most of the 68 species of eagles are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just 14 species can be found—two in North America, nine in Central and South America, and three in Australia.
Cobra is the common name of various snakes, most of which belong to the genus Naja.
Sazan is an Albanian uninhabited island in the Mediterranean Sea. The largest of Albania's islands, it is a designated military exclusion zone; it lies in a strategically important location between the Strait of Otranto and the mouth of the Bay of Vlorë, marking the border between the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
Elapidae is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus Emydocephalus. Many members of this family exhibit a threat display of rearing upwards while spreading out a neck flap. Elapids are endemic to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, with terrestrial forms in Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas and marine forms in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Members of the family have a wide range of sizes, from the 18 cm (7.1 in) white-lipped snake to the 5.85 m king cobra. Most species have neurotoxic venom that is channeled by their hollow fangs, and some may contain other toxic components in various proportions. The family includes 55 genera with around 360 species and over 170 subspecies.
The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers, or pit adders, are a subfamily of vipers found in Eurasia and the Americas. Like all other vipers, they are venomous. They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on both sides of the head. Currently, 23 genera and 155 species are recognized: These are also the only viperids found in the Americas. The groups of snakes represented here include rattlesnakes, lanceheads, and Asian pit vipers. The type genus for this subfamily is Crotalus, of which the type species is the timber rattlesnake, C. horridus.
Garter snake is the common name for small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus Thamnophis in the family Colubridae. Native to North and Central America, species in the genus Thamnophis can be found in all of the lower 48 United States, and nearly all of the Canadian provinces south of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut—with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are found from the subarctic plains of west-central Canada east through Ontario and Quebec; from the Maritime Provinces and south to Florida, across the southern and central U.S. into the arid regions of the southwest and Mexico, Guatemala and south to the neotropics and Costa Rica.
The kulshedra or kuçedra is a water, storm, fire and chthonic demon in Albanian mythology and folklore, usually described as a huge multi-headed female serpentine dragon. The kulshedra is believed to spit fire, cause drought, storms, flooding, earthquakes and other natural disasters against mankind. In Albanian mythology she is usually fought and defeated by a drangue, a semi-human winged divine hero and protector of mankind. Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of their battles.
Mirko Gashi was an Albanian writer. Born in Kralje, he studied journalism in Belgrade and worked as a journalist in Flaka e vëllazërimit in Skopje and in Radio Prishtina. He wrote poetry during the 1980s, producing collections Gjarpëri i shtëpise (1980); Arbor vitae (1988); and Plagë uji, (1990). Gashi translated literature from Kosovo Albanian authors into Serbo-Croatian. In late years, he suffered from depression and alcoholism, which ended in his death in July 1995.
The Accursed Mountains, also known as the Albanian Alps, is a mountain range in coastal Southeast Europe adjected to the Adriatic Sea. It is the southernmost subrange of the 1,000-kilometre-long (621 mi) Dinaric Alps range (Dinarides), extending from northern Albania to southern Kosovo and northeastern Montenegro. Maja Jezercë, standing at 2,694 m (8,839 ft), is the highest point of the Accursed Mountains and of all Dinaric Alps, and the fifth highest peak in Albania. The range includes the mountain Zla Kolata, which, at 2,534 m (8,314 ft), is the tallest mountain in Montenegro. The range also includes the mountain Gjeravica, which, at 2,656 m (8,714 ft), is the second tallest mountain in Kosovo. One of the southernmost glacial masses in Europe was discovered in the Albanian part of the range in 2009.
The dice snake is a Eurasian nonvenomous snake belonging to the family Colubridae, subfamily Natricinae. It is also called water snake.
Albanian folk beliefs and mythological stories comprise the beliefs expressed in the customs, rituals, myths, legends and tales of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of ancient Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of them are pagan. Albanian folklore evolved over the centuries in a relatively isolated tribal culture and society. Albanian folk tales and legends have been orally transmitted down the generations and are still very much alive in the mountainous regions of Albania, Kosovo, western North Macedonia, lands formerly inhabited by Albanians like Montenegro and South Serbia and among the Arbëreshë in Italy and the Arvanites in Greece.
The Balkan whip snake is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. It is found in Italy, Greece and most of the Balkan countries where its natural habitats are Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, pastureland, plantations and rural gardens. It is threatened by habitat loss in parts of its range but overall is assessed by the IUCN as being of "least concern".
The European ratsnake or leopard snake, is a species of nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to Europe, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus.
The European cat snake, also known as the Mediterranean cat snake, is a venomous colubrid snake endemic to the Mediterranean and Caucasus regions.
The traditional Albanian clothing includes more than 500 different varieties of clothing in all Albania and the Albanian-speaking territories and communities. Albania's recorded history of clothing goes back to classical times. It is one of the factors that has differentiated this nation from other European countries, dating back to the Illyrian period.
Shebenik National Park is a national park in eastern Albania adjacent to the border with North Macedonia. It encompasses 34,507.9 hectares (345.079 km2) and is specifically marked by a mountainous landscape supplied with glacial lakes, valleys, dense coniferous and deciduous forests and alpine meadows and pastures. Elevations in the park vary from 300 metres to over 2,200 metres above the Adriatic at the peak of Shebenik and Jabllanica, hence the name. It dwells a number of endangered species that are fast becoming rare in Southern Europe, including the brown bear, gray wolf and balkan lynx. The abundance in wildlife can in part be explained by the variety of vegetation types and remote location.
Elaphe quatuorlineata is a member of the family Colubridae. The four-lined snake is a non-venomous species and one of the largest of the European snakes.
For a small country, Albania is characterised by a considerable wealth of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and habitats with contrasting floral, faunal, and fungal species, defined in an area of 28,748 square kilometres. Most of the country is predominantly of Mediterranean character, comprehending the country's center and south, while the alpine affinity is more visible in the northeast.
The Albanian Ionian Sea Coast is a coastline of the Northeastern Ionian Sea, that encompasses the southwestern border of the Republic of Albania, stretching from the southern half of Karaburun Peninsula, across the historical region of Labëria, the city of Sarandë, the mountains of the Ceraunians and the Albanian Riviera, to the Lake of Butrint, where the Strait of Corfu separates the country from Greece.