Adder in UK

France, British isles

Adder in UK

Postby Jay Steel » Tue May 12, 2015 12:26 am

I performed my first adder survey of the year today at a Kent site that is scheduled for development and the building of a new crematorium in its place. I saw five Adders, a few Common Lizards and plenty of Slow Worms. It's such a shame that these beautiful reptiles will be relocated to another site. This adult female was enjoying the sunshine.

ImageAdder130_JasonSteel_800


ImageAdder131_JasonSteel_800


Larger photos on my website here:
http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/adders-4.php

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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Will Atkins » Tue May 12, 2015 6:39 am

beautiful photos as always Jason! I hope those adders are going to a decent receptor site - it's a shame they need to be moved, as you say, especially to make way for a people-burning factory...
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Jay Steel » Tue May 12, 2015 9:54 pm

Thanks Will. It is a real shame as you say.
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Francesco Tri » Tue May 12, 2015 10:03 pm

hopefully not be transferred in..... paradise
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Frédéric Seyffarth » Wed May 13, 2015 4:23 pm

My fears too :(
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed May 13, 2015 5:22 pm

There's a paper on translocation of a viper species (not European, can't remember which) showing that survival of translocated animals was only 10%.
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed May 13, 2015 5:26 pm

Another one, saying resident snakes live 3x longer than translocated ones.
http://www.harding.edu/plummer/pdf/plum ... ls2000.pdf
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Daniel Bohle » Wed May 13, 2015 6:29 pm

http://www.bafg.de/DE/05_Wissen/04_Pub/ ... cationFile

page 55, just in german
a bit strange written so hard to understand what they did and what happend, but I would say...the translocation totaly failed!
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Will Atkins » Wed May 13, 2015 7:55 pm

I have no doubt that most adder translocations in the UK fail. Unfortunately the methodology is still supported by our laws which protect the animals but not the habitat (animals presumably being able to survive independently of habitat). It doesn't help that the technique is even supported by those who should know better, as in the (in)famous case in England where adders from coastal Essex were translocated to a disused airfield in Wiltshire (200km plus away) which was backed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust as recently as a couple of years ago.
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Re: Adder in UK

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Wed May 13, 2015 9:55 pm

I have a layman's (well, OK, layperson's, or "pedestrian") question: Is the very act of translocating the
animals so harmful to them, or rather just the inadequate habitat to which they are translocated? Or
both? Or what, actually?
What if one translocates them to an even "much better" habitat? (I mean, much "better" as far as WE
can estimate, to the best of OUR (still poor) knowledge, of course... not THEIR actual preferences...)
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