Vipera berus in Northern England

[Graeme Skinner]

As no one seems to have posted on this part of the forum I thought I would post a few images from the last two years of Vipera berus studies I've been doing.

These images were all taken at my main study site which is about 10 miles from where I live on the North Yorkshire Moors.

This is an upland site and is very exposed. Despite the cool conditions the Adders are left mostly ignored or missed by humans and it is on private land.

I have studies the species on this site for 30 years.

























Hope you like my images of my favorite species!

[Miqe Erikzen]

As usual, Greame...
Beautiful pictures!! Do you have any idea what happened to the injured adder?

[Mario Schweiger]

Hello Graeme,

welcome to the forum and thanks for posting these very nice common adder pictures!
Yes, the adder on picture two have a quite fresh wound. Why? Do you know?

Before two days we had a very interesting lecture on adder ecology (population in the northern limestone alps, Salzburg, Austria) in the natural history museum in Vienna.
There the male adders with length more than 50 cm seem to be more sexually active than smaller ones.
The author gives some comparisions with other populations, all over Europe.
For example with a study from England (dont know where), where the most sexually active males are in the dimensions between 30 and 40 cm long.

Do you have any ideas, how it is in the population(s), you are observing?

Mario

[Ilian Velikov]

Beautiful pictures!!! Finally something from the West! ..Thank you for posting!

[Graeme Skinner]

Mario,

The study area is reasonably close to a private house and the lane is managed by a farmer so it may have been accidentally struck by machinery though we will never know.

I checked on the snake all season and it seemed to heal very well.

I only saw it once following its winter sleep and it looked well.

As for the sexual activity of berus in relation to size during this years spring study I followed a small number for three weeks around breeding time with a view to film and photograph them.

The silver/white male in the last image fought hard with two other males in his area and eventually got his female.

Both other males were slightly larger.

The population which I study in my area are quite small and are possibly more at risk from human interaction with the species.

They have been reasonably static in numbers during my study period as the site is on private land although a public access path does run adjacent to the main hibernacula and terrestrial habitat

Graeme

[Graeme Skinner]

Beautiful pictures!!! Finally something from the West! ..Thank you for posting!

Ilian

I am glad you like the images

Graeme

[Aleksandar Simovic]

Awsome pictures!

What camera and lens you used??

Cheers

[Graeme Skinner]

Awsome pictures!

What camera and lens you used??

Cheers

Aleksandar

I use Nikon D300's with Nikon Lenses. For most of these I think either a 60mm Macro or a 90mm macro.

I am glad you like them, its great to be able to be in a position where you can take nice images without causing the animals any stress.

Graeme

[Aleksandar Simovic]

thank you very much for reply

yep, for me in situ shots are best

[Graeme Skinner]

thank you very much for reply

yep, for me in situ shots are best

I enjoy spending time getting close to snakes without disturbing them. I get a much better feeling than if the snakes have been handled or stressed.