Region
Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti extends from the Colchis lowlands to the high mountains of Svaneti. Humid forests, river valleys, and alpine zones meet within one region, so reptile composition changes markedly with elevation and habitat.
This atlas classes Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti as “Colchis · Svaneti”, with these main habitats: Colchis lowlands; River valleys; High-mountain Svaneti. The atlas has 38 published species profiles for Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti: 11 birds, 7 lizards, 7 amphibians, 5 snakes, 3 mammals, 2 scorpions, 1 turtle, 1 spider, and 1 insect. Reptiles make up 13 of them, amphibians 7.
2 listed species have a high or moderate risk level for people: Caucasus viper (Vipera kaznakovi) and Dinnik's viper (Vipera dinniki). Keep your distance from any unidentified snake, never try to catch or handle it, and call 112 after a bite.
The list covers only species with a published atlas profile, not the complete fauna of Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti. A species is added only when a confirmed record names this administrative unit, so a missing animal may still live here. Related region pages: Abkhazia, Guria, Racha — Lechkhumi — Kvemo Svaneti, and Imereti.
Only confirmed records are added to region pages. If a species’ link to a specific administrative unit has not yet been confirmed by a source, it will not appear in the relevant list.
Questions
Short answers about species recorded in Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti.
Snakes recorded in Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti in this atlas: Caucasus viper (Vipera kaznakovi), Dinnik’s viper (Vipera dinniki), dice snake, grass snake and smooth snake. Dinnik’s viper (Vipera dinniki) occurs in the high-mountain part of Zemo Svaneti. Species composition at a specific place changes with elevation and habitat.
News
A 4 mm, colourless, eyeless crustacean from two caves in Upper Imereti turned out to be so distinct that it got a new genus, Imeretioniscus. A second new species, Colchidoniscus fissus, was described from caves in Odishi.
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A paper in ZooKeys sets up a new genus, Caucasirella, for small amphipods of the western Caucasus and describes three new species from Russia’s Black Sea coast. There are still no records of this group from central Georgia.
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In June 2026 parliament approved two new national parks: Egrisi in Samegrelo and Tsiv-Gombori in Kakheti. Alongside Tsiv-Gombori it also created the Signagi Strict Nature Reserve and the Tsiv-Gombori Protected Landscape.
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Mammals
Twenty of the 30 bat species known from Georgia have been found in caves and other underground sites. Yet only about 15% of those sites have been surveyed for bats.
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Mammals
According to Guchmanidze’s 17-year record, this is the highest figure of the past decade. The agency has not named a cause for the strandings at this stage.
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