World Snake Day

Yesterday was World Snake Day – and we missed it!

World Snake Day is on July 16th every year. Its purpose is both to increase awareness of the world’s snakes and to improve their public image. People are frightened of snakes, usually without cause: world wide there are 3,500 species, only approximately 600 of which are venomous and according to the World Health Organization, only about 200 of those pose any significant risk to a human. But even venomous snakes deserve protection in these worrying times.

We have two species of snake in the reserve: grass snake (Natrix natrix) and adder (Vipera berus).

The pictures of grass snakes (above) were all taken in the reserve but Google contributed the pictures of adders (below), which are shy and retiring creatures that are we rarely see and have never photographed. The header image was taken in the Kestrel Field set-aside by DKG in 2019.

Our grass snake population seems to be doing well. We have seen them hunting frogs in Village Green Pond and we come across them, at all stages of their development from hatchling to metre-long adult, in the set-asides in Kestrel Field and Village Green.

But we haven’t seen adders for some years. We hope they are still here, in the reserve, and that we have a breeding population. The last sighting was on the edge of Simpson’s Field copse: a fully grown very dark coloured adult basking in the sunshine.

Don’t be frightened. Grass snakes are not venomous and adders, which are venomous, are a great deal more scared of you than you are of them; they will wriggle away into hiding the moment they feel the vibrations of your big human feet tramping along the path.

Stay safe.

Conservation status: both grass snakes and adders are protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 and both are Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework.