Snakes and adders

One of the most exciting sights in the East Devon countryside in spring must be the glimpse of an adder. Perhaps it’s a diminutive steely-grey male, with golden eye and flicking black tongue or a larger, bronzed female, opulently basking in the early spring sunshine. Whenever I see one of these beautiful animals, it sets my pulse racing.

Adders have been persecuted for years, largely due to the misconception that they pose us serious harm. However, since the killing of adders was prohibited by law their populations have continued to decline and this has got so serious in recent years as to move scientists in Oxford University to examine their genetic diversity in an attempt to unravel the mystery.

Adders are a top predator in the habitat in which they live. Feeding on small mammals and lizards, adders can only thrive where populations of these prey items are abundant. However, adders are also very slow to move into new areas, colonising – or recolonising – territories at a very slow pace. As reptiles, adders live at the northern limits of their range in our temperate climate, and so their ecology is somewhat slowed. They live a long time, and are only able to reproduce every two years, such is the stress to produce offspring. This means that with a few young being produced every other year, recruitment to the population is very slow. So once you’ve lost an adder from a site, it’s a very long time before they are likely to return.

As adder numbers wane, so populations become isolated and small clans are all that remains. Recent reports of adder malformation and abnormalities have raised concerns amongst herprtologists (scientists who study reptiles and amphibians) that this isolation could have led to genetic abnormalities through in-breeding. If a population has become so isolated that the same few adult animals are reproducing each year, and no new bloodlines are being introduced from adders nearby, for the simple reason that there are no adders nearby, then the decline of the population will be terminal.

A simple monitoring scheme has been running on Fire Beacon Hill Local Nature Reserve for three years now, keeping an eye on adder numbers, ratios of male and females and general health of the population with a series of monitoring refuges. I organise a number of reptile rambles through the year for members for the public to join in surveying the traps, giving people the chance to meet an adder often for the very first time.

When I set off on the site to lead my first ever reptile ramble, I have to admit my heart was in my throat. Was I being reckless taking a group of people onto a site which has adders, on a hunt to see… adders? I went through an extraordinarily extensive briefing before we set off, I was in serious danger of losing a few participants to boredom before we had left the car park, such was the length of my Health & Safety spiel. But eventually we got underway, and a fabulous time was had by all. As I lifted reptile traps in turn, the children at the front, adults behind, the thrill of expectation was palpable on each occasion.

Each time you lift a piece of roof felt which comprises a reptile ‘trap’ there is great anticipation for what might lie beneath. All too often it’s a large colony of ants, which means nothing else will be there. But sometimes there’s a slow worm, sometimes a common lizard and occasionally there will be the ultimate prize of an adder peacefully soaking up the heat. As long as everyone remains still and calm, gently lifting the lid on a slumbering snake will mean that it stays in its coiled position to be admired by onlookers. If people push forward to get a better view the snake will disappear into the heath behind the trap, and I will not grab out at it to pull it back into view.

The snake has done its bit and it now deserves its sanctuary, I then attempt to persuade everyone that we’ll get a better view next time if people stay still and don’t rush forward! It’s hard to convince people, but with reptiles its movement that they react to more than shape. If you stay still when reptile watching you will get far better views than by attempting to move close in. The only time in which I would intervene is if the adder decided to make good its escape toward the onlookers, which could prove rather interesting! If this happens then I’ll gently lift the snake and turn it to move away from the crowd rather than into it.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned that persecution stemmed from a misconception that adders are harmful. This is of course relative, in the same way that heights are not harmful if you do not fall from them. Adders have a venomous bite, and in certain circumstances this bite can prove dangerous. You should never attempt to pick up a snake you find in the wild, you will get much better views of it by remaining a respectful distance from it. And if you stumble upon one by chance, try to remain calm and back away gently, remember – the snake will be far more terrified than you by your sudden appearance. There, safety lecture over!