Re: Adder in UK
Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:38 am
I think that unless the capturing and transporting process is completely incompetent then the real problem is what happens in the months and years after the animals are released in their 'perfect' new habitat. The problem is that the receptor site which is chosen must be suitable - and ideally much better than that - for adders and yet not already have a population of the species. So the obvious question is why is the species not there already? In the rare cases where translocated adders have survived for 10+ years in a new habitat it has been because there is a newly created - often post-industrial - location which had not been naturally colonised by the species. Reintroductions are problematic because it is necessary to find out why the animals went extinct in the first place and to be able to guarantee that the same fate won't happen to the reintroduced adders. A final point; even if the adders thrive for a decade or more, in the longer term there are issues over inbreeding and so it may be necessary to have a plan to top up with new alleles every few decades, as would happen in the wild with a metapopulation of adders. Unsurprisingly the average mitigation statement for translocated adders doesn't take the long view!