Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

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Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Johannes Penner » Thu Jan 21, 2016 10:58 am

Dear colleagues,

As you know many reptile species are threatened with extinction and despite its large area of distribution, the European adder (Vipera berus) is one of them. Reasons are manifold but loss of suitable habitat is certainly one of the most important ones. This means that many single populations face extinction despite the huge are of distribution for the species.

We conduct a meta-analysis on the overall trend of the European adder (Vipera berus), i.e. specifically how populations are developing over time and whether a general trend is detectable.

Thus we analyse mark-recapture data of European adders (Vipera berus). A larger data set increases the chance to gain relevant results for conservation as well as the awareness for its conservation needs. Therefore we need your help!

If you have mark-recapture data of European adders (Vipera berus), independent whether they are already published or not, you could help the European adder and us by placing them at our disposal. In general, we are interested when the animals were spotted and further data on their sex, size and weight. Please find attached an exemplary data sheet.

We do not need detailed information on the single localities of your populations or your animals, i.e. no GPS data or detailed maps. Nevertheless we tread your data highly confidential and will not give them to third parties. In addition, we offer co-authorship on all publications which are written with your data.

We would be more than delighted if you could place your data at our disposal. I am also very grateful for hints to other colleagues who might have such data. Do not hesitate to ask me if you have any questions regarding our project.

With kind regards
Johannes Penner
(johannes.penner@mfn-berlin.de)

PS: Within our possibilities, we can certainly offer to assist with processing your data so that it is usable for our meta-analysis.
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:10 pm

Please find attached an exemplary data sheet.

Attached where?
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Mario Schweiger » Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:26 pm

here it is :)
BeispielDaten.xls
(75.5 KiB) Downloaded 391 times
Mario (Admin)

Please visit also my personal Herp-site vipersgarden.at
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Fri Jan 22, 2016 12:03 am

Dear Johannes,
as one of the "older" members of this forum, and as someone who has been active in science for 35 years already,
may I remind you, in a most friendly way, that you haven't introduced youself at all, either yourself presonally, or
your institution. I had to "google" your name to find out who you are and where you work. Sorry, but that's not
"user-friendly" (Sagt man "benutzerfreundlich"?) at all. If you ask people to help you in any way, it's up to YOU to
encourage them to join in...
Nonetheless, of course, I forwarded your posting to those who had done the monitoring of Vipera berus in Croatia.
(I used to be just a part of the "workforce", occasionally - the guy who just likes to catch the animals, and hold
them while the real young scientists do the measurements...) So, it's up to them, either to answer your request,
or not.

MZ_1039_RED.jpg
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:46 am

I suggest getting in touch with these people:

NL: pedro at plex dot nl
BE: dirkbauwens17 at gmail dot com

The latter collaborates on a long-lasting Flemish CMR project with several 1000s of sightings.

I think I am with Bero, however, to advice you to offer these people just a little bit more in terms of context and aims when you contact them. Imho, your request is a bit too vague to convince people to give up data they've cherished for years, decades, ... .

But I may be wrong & of course, your request is welcome here. I wouldn't mind seeing more scientists trying to benefit from the field hours many of our dedicated members deliver.
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Johannes Penner » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:31 am

Dear Berislav, Mario, Jeroen, and all others,

Thank you very much for your replies and thank you even more for forwarding my request and providing the email addresses!

My intention was certainly not to be rude or “not user friendly”. It was more a compromise between writing to lengthy postings which are boring too many people and raising interest in our project. From my own personal subjective, I prefer shorter postings and longer direct emails from person to person.

As always, a compromise is not satisfactory for everyone, my apologies for that. Concerning my person, my name is Johannes Penner and I studied biology at the universities of Edinburgh (UK), Tübingen and Würzburg (both Germany). My main subjects were Tropical Biology and Animal Ecology. The main reason for studying biology has always been the fascination for snakes. Since I was a little kid I wanted to understand their behaviour and biology. Probably similar to Berislav, Jeroen, Mario and many others, the best part of my work was and is to be in the field! I worked in lots of countries around the globe, focusing on Central and Western Africa. My Diploma thesis was on community ecology of reptiles in Western Madagascar and my PhD on the macroecology of West African amphibians. At the moment I am working at the Natural History Museum in Berlin Germany, partly as a herpetologist doing science in numerous smaller projects, partly in a project concerned with overall European biodiversity on all levels from data gathering, over storage, analyses and informing politicians, and partly I work as a freelance consultant for environmental impact assessments. In addition, to the normal work as a scientist like teaching and supervising students and numerous other activities, I am currently actively engaged in the IUCN Viper specialist group (as Red List authority group coordinator) and the IUCN Amphibian specialist group (as facilitator of the climate change working group).

I have been working on European adders (Vipera berus) from 2001 to 2008 on a population in Germany. The main aims were to introduce students to field work, study the specific microhabitat requirements of the individuals at that particular site and use that to inform forestry workers what they could do to safeguard the species. We used mark-recapture data to estimate the population size. From that work and my experience in contributing to the IUCN global amphibian and reptile assessments, originated the idea that in many cases species are widely distributed but nevertheless many populations are threatened. Therefore we thought it would be interesting to try to quantify that and the European adder (Vipera berus) seemed like the perfect study case because it is widespread and lots of people did or still do mark-recapture studies. I know that it is challenging to estimate population trends for such a widespread species and that the conclusions stand or fall with the amount of population data we get and the geographic coverage. Nevertheless, I think it is worth a try and would be really awesome if we could pull this together.

Thus, I think I do not want to benefit from the data others gathered in years of hard field work with many sacrifices. I want to achieve that decision makers realise that they need to protect widespread species as well (keeping common species common is a nice related initiative from the US which summarises it nicely just by their title). I also offer anyone who is willing to contribute data co-authorship. So people get recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Unfortunately, I have nothing else to offer and I am not sure whether materialistic offers would be adequate.

I am aware of the fact that many people consider my request with very critical opinions and that I am exposing myself with that. However, I think the project is worth it. Do not hesitate if you have further questions. You can ask me either here in the forum or directly via email.

With best wishes and the hope that many other people are willing to contribute!
Johannes

PS: My web page is not too updated but you can find some more information here http://www.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/e ... 3Ftypo%3D2
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Ilian Velikov » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:13 pm

Hi Johannes, nice to see you here. The project sounds like a great initiative and I wish you luck with it but I also hope we could see some photos from your years of fieldwork here. Although it's an European forum don't hesitate to post stuff from other continents as well and especially rarely visited countries like Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. I'm sure everyone will appreciate it.
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Bobby Bok » Fri Jan 22, 2016 3:49 pm

Ilian Velikov wrote:and especially rarely visited countries like Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. I'm sure everyone will appreciate it.


Sounds very interesting!!!
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Johannes Penner » Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:39 pm

jope2012.jpg


Sure, I can start with some highlights from one of two trips to Liberia in 2012. If you want to, you can guess the species.

Best wishes
Johannes
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Re: Mark-recapture data on European adders (Vipera berus)

Postby Ilian Velikov » Tue Feb 09, 2016 2:33 pm

Really? Nobody is going to have a go at this?

Maybe this needs to move to a different thread because I think it's hardly noticeable under that title.

I think bottom row, third from left to right is Bothrophthalmus lineatus but I have no clue for the rest...

Johannes, I think you might have to educate us on this ;)
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