The Health Protection Agency has recently put out a press release regarding the issue of adder bite enquiries. The reported cases numbering just 196 in three years there was a large percentage of these bites were on the hand leaving the HPA to believe that this was avoidable and so issued the following press release
This news item will be following the media backlash which has been unleashed due to the press release which was intended to help the public avoid being bitten while out in the countryside. The risk of being bitten is very low over most of the UK. The adder being the most vulnerable and some cases very rare in some counties.
For hundreds of years adders have been persecuted and are now a protected species and cannot be deliberately harmed or killed! Something which was omitted from the HPA press release.
The press have jumped on the bandwagon with sensationist headlines which may do more harm than good for both people and the adders themselves.
Over the last 20 years the attitude towards snakes has dramatically changed. Many examples of the fascination of the British public in regards to reptiles can be found at the New Forest reptiliary, over subscribed reptile rambles and in one case a regular adder walk each spring where up to 90 people at a time go out to be shown adders in their natural habitat. The ages of the people range from 8 to 90 and every year the adders never fail to impress and inspire on thee public engagement walks.
It is sad that possibly all the hard work of local council's, country Park rangers, local args, and conservationists in getting a greater acceptance of this much maligned animal to a place where people respect and wonder at this snake still here where other species such as the bear, wolf and other more dangerous animals have gone extinct thanks to humans. There are many people out there who are passionate about their local adders. Hours in the field carefully recording numbers and important habitat features so that year on year individuals are recognized. The pioneers of this sort of work includes the likes of Tony Phelps and Sylvia Sheldon who have studied adders for decades. There are a new band of adder watchers who have taken inspiration from these pioneers. There are many more out there and we would like to record their findings in the Make the Adder Count survey which can be found at