Adders in the UK- Amphibian & Reptile Conservation

August 31, 2012 by meetspecies

The adder (Vipera berus) must be one of the UK's most iconic species, and is certainly one that gets a lot of attention! As our only venomous reptile it has unfortunately gained a somewhat dubious reputation amongst those that like to sensationalise such things. The fact is that these are not aggressive animals and they do not seek contact with humans, preferring to remain hidden from view and left to go about their business. Venom is used to subdue prey items (small rodents, lizards) and although adders will sometimes bite in self-defence this will only happen if the animal is put in a position where it feels threatened. These beautiful animals suffered persecution by humans in the past and while we hope that situation has improved it doesn't take too much media hysteria to create another new wave of panic.

Adder (c) Chris Dresh

I would consider finding  an adder in the wild as one of our top wildlife 'must see' events. These stunningly marked snakes with their striking zig-zag pattern and bright red eyes are most easily found on spring or autumn mornings when basking in the sun. It doesn't matter how many pictures of adders you see, there is no substitute for seeing one in the flesh. The males have black markings on a light background (very light brown to white) while the females have dark brown markings on a light brown to straw coloured background. Black adders are relatively common. Females are larger than males and can reach a size of well over 70cm, although as with 'fishermen's tales' the length of adders will often increase as the story of the sighting is told!

Adder (c) Chris Dresh

The adder is currently the species that UK herpetologists are most concerned about. There is mounting evidence that adders are in decline in many parts of the country. Habitat loss and land use change are the most common reasons for declines in our reptile species but by no means the whole story. Here at ARC we attempt to improve the conservation status of the adder in a number of ways: by making sure that reserve management planning (both on our own sites and other peoples) takes adder habitat requirements and seasonal movements into account, by undertaking extensive  survey on a national scale (www.NARRS.org.uk), collating information on the historic range of adders ( 'Add an adder')  and by enlisting volunteers to help with counts at the often  overlooked, but vitally important hibernation/spring emergence  sites used by adders (www.maketheaddercount.org).

Adder (c) Chris Dresh

We encourage everyone to get involved in these projects if they can, or go to your local Amphibian and Reptile Group (www.arguk.org) for further information on local adder projects. Conservation action to reverse the decline of the adder must be based on good distribution, population and habitat use data and to effectively collect this information we, and the adder need your help!

With great thanks to Gary Powell, Senior Reserves Manager at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation for his brilliant contribution!

To find out more about adders, other reptiles & amphibians and the work that ARC do please visit www.arc-trust.org

You can also follow them on Facebook & Twitter

A chance to go out and carry out practical conservation work which WILL benefit amphibians and reptiles in the UK! (from CJS advert)

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation is looking to recruit two Seasonal Field Officers for our winter management team based in Surrey.  This 6 month contract involves conservation management work on our nature reserves throughout Surrey and occasionally further afield.  Chainsaw/pesticide qualification is desirable but a willingness to work hard and outdoors in all weathers is more important.  Hours of work – Monday to Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm.  Salary circa £15,000 pro rata.

Closing date for applications – Friday 24th August. Interviews to be held week commencing 3rd September.   Please contact Helen Wraight on 01202 391319 for an application form or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. alternatively, an application form and full details can be found at http://www.arc-trust.org/jobs/

The Record Pool is an online database which has been developed by Herp Worker's in the UK. The project is a partnership with Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, Pond Conservation and other experts in the field such as Steve Langham (Surrey ARG) and Lee Brady (Kent County Recorder for Herpetofauna). The intention for the Record Pool is to help people, outside of official recording schemes, to report when and where they see reptiles or amphibians in the UK.  

The Record Pool has recently launched a survey sheet for people to report multiple sightings from multiple sites and on different dates in order to get more detailed information which may not have entered other online recording schemes.  The Record Pool is being refined all the time with a bottom up approach of volunteers testing and using the system from the front end (web site and web forms) and also testing the functionality of the back end (admin system).

2,000 records have been collated

To date over 2,000 records have been collated and these have now been extracted and saved into excel spreadsheets and sent to local recorders in the following counties:-

• Kent, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Essex, Cheshire, Lancashire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Berkshire
• Perthshire, Glasgow (city of), Dumfriesshire, Lanarkshire, Inverness-shire

This first round was from counties which had more than 5 records as of August 2012.  From the admin system the leading counties (submissions) were as follows

• Essex 291
• Hampshire 203
• Lanarkshire 189
• Herptile ID App records (no county named) 152
• Devon 32

The next round of reporting is being planned for December 2012. If you would like to have records for your ARG, LRC then please contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Future developments

The following developments as suggested by local recorders and the volunteer testers will be progressed over the next month or so

• Move the Record Pool to its own domain recordpool.org
• Add a photo/sound/video file upload facility
• Optimise the survey sheet and sighting card for mobile devices
• Utilise the Species Icons designed by KRAG
• Place an online recording form on all the free ARG websites listed on the ARGUK subdomain
• Upload data from iSpot, Pond Conservation's Big Spawn, Big Pond Thaw and Big Pond Dip Survey
• Finish the mapping facility on the admin system

Other online recording news

There are exciting developments online from Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group who are developing an online atlas using their data and displaying amphibian & reptile hotspots within interactive maps on google or bing. The idea is to feed in the information from the Record Pool into this database to help produce an atlas for the South East of England 

Here is a snippet of the atlas map taking shape (from Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group) 

 Looking forward to see this develop into the first online interactive Amphibian & Reptile atlas for the South East of England.....perhaps the rest of the country.....WATCH THAT SPACE!

ARG UK MIDLANDS REGIONAL CONFERENCE
Saturday 22 September 2012
9.30am – 4pm
at
National Forest Waterside Centre
Bath Yard, Bath Lane, Moira
Swadlincote, DE12 6BA

A bargain at only £12 (£6.00 for ARG members)

 ARG UK MIDLANDS REGIONAL CONFERENCE Booking Form 2012

Bringing back the UK's Rarest Frog - The Norfolk Pool Frog.....

Need a breather from the Olympics?  Wind down with a gentle natural history ramble on the radio.  The Living World is a natural history programme produced by BBC's Radio 4.  The most recent edition featured the northern pool frog and can be enjoyed on the Listen Again option.

There is also an on-line archive of programmes including some on herps and ponds:

• Ponds in Winter - Pond Conservation's Jeremy Biggs.
• Natterjacks - Amphibian & Reptile Conservation's Bill Shaw.
• Rare Reptile - Amphibian & Reptile Conservation's Roland Griffin.

(Photos from the BBC website - the Living World)