ON THE WILD SIDE
ADDERS
I’M not going to beat around the bush – adders have a reputation problem.
As the UK’s only native venomous snake, they are feared because of their venom, and that is part of the reason for their decline. They are killed by people who don’t understand them, despite it being massively illegal to harm them, and it needs to stop.
There are about 100 adder bites a year, mostly to adult men who pick them up to show off or harm them. And 70% of adder bites are “dry”, giving no or little venom.
There have only been 14 deaths from adder venom in the last 100 years, all very young, very old or already ill. The last death I can find was a five-year-old in 1975.
In contrast, bee and wasp stings kill up to nine people in the UK every year. So, which is more dangerous? The answer is clear.
Adders are fairly short snakes, averaging about 2ft. They can be identified by their red eyes with slit pupils, unlike our other native snakes who have big round pupils and golden eyes.
Adders usually have a darker zigzag or stripe down their back, but come in a massive array of colours and patterns.
Males are usually silver-grey and black, and females tend to be browner. The babies are usually more golden.
About one in five adders are melanistic, meaning entirely or mostly black. They are often called vipers, which comes from the word “vivipary”, meaning to give birth to live young.
The adder creates eggs, but does not lay them, instead incubating them inside her body until babies pop out ready to go.
Their favourite food is the viviparous lizard (you know that word now!) and adders only eat up to 10 times a year.
They were also once called nadders, but the name mutated to “an adder” like the newt was once “an ewt”.
Adders usually wake up in March, then hibernate again in October. They are incredibly shy and hate being disturbed, so you shouldn’t have to worry about them in gardens or parks, but they have a massive range of habitats, the most widespread of any British snake. They are the only snake in Scotland, and in Europe they are one of the rare reptiles found North of the Arctic circle. These gentle snakes only hurt people or animals who step on them or pick them up.
During courtship, males “dance” by lifting half their bodies into the air and pushing each other, sometimes many at a time. A massive blow for them is pheasants. Non-native, and from China where snakes are more prevalent, pheasants will viciously attack any snake they see and sometimes eat them.