V.berus Europe

Hi Folks

Over here in UK v.berus is in trouble , management of land is not helping the situation. How is berus doing over in Europe, are numbers on the decline in the wild?
In What sort of habitat can berus be found, and do conservation organisations manage the land or just let nature take it's course?

Thanks for any info

Al

Hmmm, no berus fieldworkers over in Europe keeping an eye on their status?

I just know that where i live in Sweden its a lot of V.berus and i always find many of them in different colours when im out in nature..

Cheers Johan

https://venomland.forumotion.com/fieldworks-herptrips-f17/fieldherping-in-swedish-offspring-t726.htm

Hello,

In Sweden Vipera berus is still quite common. You can find them almost everywhere where the habitat is right. No studies have been conducted here to see if they are increasing or decreasing. Despite that I think it´s safe to say that they are slowly decreasing. The main reason is habitatloss because of intensified agricultural activities.

The habitat they prefer over here is the older type of pastures, with thornbushes and stonewalls. They tend to be absent from, or occur in low numbers in, areas that are to heavily grazed, probably due to lack of prey. They prefer somewhat taller grass even in areas with alot of other hiding places. They eat mostly rodent here even though they occasionaly eat lizards and probably frogs and birds as well.
They also occur in bogs and shores of rivers, lakes and seas. This must have been their original habitat in ancient Scandinavia where the inland was mostly covered with forests. Especially in the northern parts of Sweden who still is covered with large woodlands, bogs are still a very important habitat for them.
Another crucial matter in this cold land is of course good hibernation sites. They have to be able to get several decimetres down in the ground not to freaze to death.

Since they are still quite common, not much is done by the goverment or organisations to help them out. On one hand I can understand that, the resources for conservation is limited and should be used on the species that needs it the most, but on the other hand it´s better to act as early as possible.

Some years ago I and som people from the Swedish herpetological society visited Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden. It´s situated close to Kiruna north of the arctic circle and is one of the northernmost snakelocalities in the world. It was in the beginning of June and I was amazed to see the midnight sun aswell as Vipera berus, Lacerta vivipara and Rana temporaria. A fantastic experience off course, and you should all consider to go there sometime.

Petter

Peeter and Johan, thank you for your replies

That's a great read peeter, really informative and a great help. Interesting that the grazing seems to tie in with many similar cases over in UK.

Jukkasjärvi sounds like an absolutely fantastic experience, do you mean that you saw berus out and active in the midnight sun?

Thank you once again
Best Regards,
Alan

Hi Al,

here in Austria the general situation for V. berus is quite good. There are some places where they are threatened, mostly by destruction (irrigation) of their habitat and "cultivating" these areas but most populations are healthy and undisturbed. What you call "management of land" usually means the end for V. berus populations as "management" usually is meant for humans, not animals and natural habitat.
Like in Sweden they live in bogs, pastures,... but only if it is not too warm there (average through the years) and especially the habitat must be humid.
Parts of the Alps are a special place for these snakes. Edges of forests, clearings, humid meadows (not overgrazed like Petter wrote for Sweden too) with rocks and bushes are the habitat where you can find them in good numbers. I know places where you can find 40-50 of them in one morning.
Here too like in Sweden in general there are no measurements necessary for saving this species.

Cheers,
Rainer

No, they (unfortuneatly) didn´t bask in the midnight sun, and I´m quite sure it´s not hot enough. The midnight sun was however a new fantastic experience for me that I had to mention.
On the other hand, I´m sure that the long days up there in summer are an important factor that helps make it possible for them to reproduce during the short summer.

One thing I forgot to say is that the habitat for V. berus in Sweden differs a lot depending on the season. In spring they stay close to the hibernation sites that allways are in rather dry and sunexposed places (as you might expect). After the matings that occur in late april (south Sweden) to june (north Sweden) they move to more moist habitats and stay there all summer. Some adders are lucky enough to hibernate in a place where the summer habitats is only a few meters away, but others can move quite far to find a good habitat. On one of the places we visited close to Jukkasjärvi for example, the hibernation site, a rocky hillside facing south, was a several hundred meters away from the bog where they lived in summer. On top of it all, these habitats was separated by forest.

Do they move like this in the UK and Austria to?

Petter

Hi Petter,

in some populations they do move like that too. In some summer-places (bogs, low lying meadows, some mountain-slopes) they would get flooded in winter and their hibernation-sites are in drier places, in the alps often rocky slopes like you write about some swedish populations. Also the distance between summer- and winter habitat is like you describe for Sweden. And you can find the same individuals in the same summer- and winter- places over many years. I made research about this with V. ammodytes in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia and found that in these populations males migrate up to a distance of 4,3km (straight line, they have to crawl a longer distance of course) between summer- and winter places. In most of these animals I could watch them for years. I know two males in one of these populations for 19 years now, finding them in late April fighting and mating in front of their hibernaculum (together with ca 50 other Ammod) and on their individual summer places 2,3 and 1,5 km away, each year on the same spot. Each time I´m happy to see them, it´s like meeting good old friends.

Cheers,
Rainer

Hi ,
Thanks for the very interesting read everyone.

Rainer, 40-50? That's very promising. It used to be that way in UK , but I do not know of any such places now. It also sounds like the habitat in Austria for berus is pretty much the same as UK. Also agree with you about meetimng old friends .There are certain individuals I've known since the early 80's.
One male in partiicular is my favourite, he's a huge specimin. Unlike most other berus that have a flat head he has very bulbous venom glands more like a crote, His head is mostly all black too.

Hi Petter,
Yes, Berus move away from the hibernation dens and breeding sites April- June. They then can be found pretty much anywhere that is suitable. Often boggy parts of the heath, on top of grass tussocks ect, but I do not know of any rocky areas where berus can be found.
Interestingly, the first berus I ever saw was swimming in a woodland brook. I've not seen this since.
There is one site I have visited for many years and, either the hibernacula is getting larger and spreading or all the snakes are dispersing across the whole range and hibernating seperately.
At this site all the overly large specimins suddenly vanished too after being there year after year. There was one pair that hooked up in April and after watching the female for the whole year I realised she was not gravid. This made me wonder if these snakes were mating out of habit, or for pleasure, or if maybe one of them was infertile.



So, in Austria and Sweden Have berus been seen out in every month of the year like in UK?

Thanks for a great discussion guys

Best regards,
Alan

Hi Al,
40-50 V. berus in one morning is not the normal number you may find in Austria. Usually there will be much less. I found that many only in places that I knew very well. And only in populations in the alps (the populations I watched were at an altitude of 700-1500m) and in V. berus bosniensis in Croatia. There it may be even more with specimens “rowed up” along ditches among fields and small forests every 5-10 meters.
But in most parts of Austria you´re lucky if you see 10 in a day. Fortunately the situation in most Berus- places in Austria has not changed over almost 40 years now.

I have never seen V. berus out in winter in Austria. We have a climate that is very different from that in Britain, much more continentally influenced..Winters usually are much colder with much snow, especially in the alps. In alpine populations I have never seen berus after mid.October or before April. But in April you can find them on dry patches of grass right among snow-fields.
I think they don´t especially chose rocky areas as their habitat like most V. ammodytes but if they want to have space for living they just don´t have another chance to live in many places in the mountains. And in high altitudes with cold conditions rocky areas with grass between the rocks are warmer and sunnier than valleys with deep wet soil.
There are no V. berus where I live (the next populations are ca 100km away in alpine areas) because it is too warm over the year though winters usually are much colder than in Britain, 20° minus are quite normal for a while in most winters. But spring to autumn are warm, I can find Zamenis (former Elaphe) longissimus and lots of Lacerta viridis in my garden and V. ammodytes are quite close too.

Something personal: I like the way you look at these animals. Loving them without wanting to possess them (like many people do). And feeling concerned about them. Like the relation I have seen in Petter Albinson´s post about his yourney to Turkey that I liked very much too.

Best regards,
Rainer

Hi Again Rainer,
Thanks for the kind compliment If ever you come to UK please look me up for field trips.
I also enjoyed the Turkey post, and love field herping there myself. Mind you, it looks like the area Petter went to is much richer in life than where we go.
I do keep bitis in captivity , but this is only for study . If I could i'd rather sit out in the field and study bitis there, but you know how life is with family and funds ect.

Another great read about berus above. I find the difference in your countrys weather interesting, that is a relatively short period for the snakes to be active.
Here in UK berus emerges in mid February , mates in April and in many cases can still be found late October - early November.

Do the Austrian berus mate in April or later? I'm wondering if they become gravid and then give birth the following Spring as some have been seen to do. Also, what ratio would you say are melanistic and are they extremely varied in colouration like UK berus?

I've often wondered if berus from different countries are slowly evolving, changing in venom composition ect. Seeing as this snake has such a wide range and must feed on different prey over it's range surely there must be some differences?

Great chatting to you about this,
All the best,
Alan

Hi Alan,
thank you for the invitation. Maybe, I´d like to. But usually my trips lead me in southern and southeastern direction. A lot of the time when reptiles are active you find me in southeastern Europe working with V. ammodytes.

In most Berus-places in Austria they might go skiing if they would come out in February but not go mating. I low-lying areas they mate from mid-April to mid-May but in the higher parts of their range in the alps this may be as late as June. In such areas I have seen gravid V. berus coming out of hibernation. Though V.berus has a shorter gestation period than V. amm., they don´t manage to give birth before autumn, especially as low temperatures during the nights (also in their hiding places) keep their metabolism low.
In several places in the eastern Alps in Lower Austria I found that in the higher parts there were more melanistic specimens, up to 60%. We found that black males reach their optimum-temperature in less than half the time of "normal" light grey males with pattern.
All over the range of V. berus in Austria there is the normal, broad variation in colour.

The venom of V. berus is very much the same in most of its range (also V. berus bosniensis, that were said to have neurotoxins don´t differ from other european ones). Only the east-siberian ones are different, their venom has a much higher toxicity. I think in V. berus success in hunting different prey lies more in adaptive behaviour than in differing venom. Whenever I saw a V. berus hunt a frog, it did not let him go, in mice it always was bite-let go-wait-serch. It is like in V. amm. with lizards (they hold them), birds (hold tight) and mice (let go). They can also distinguish between baby- and adult mice.

Best wishes,
Rainer

Hi Rainer,
I can understand that for sure, when we can afford to travel abroad we always head somewhere warm too

More interesting info, thank you . Just as I thought, Austrian berus have a relatively shorter period of activity , so sometimes emerge from hibernation gravid. UK berus do not mate in February, this is when they emerge males first, then bask in clusters of 3-6 huddled together. The females come out about 2-3 weeks later and mating starts in early April.

Thanks for the info regarding venoms too, so there is slight variation as in East Siberian but on the whole not much.

I am hoping next Spring will be a much better year for our UK snakes, the last two summers have been aweful.
With any luck will be posting up pics of males this coming Feb'

Great chatting with you
All the best,
Alan

This is the most interesting forum thread I´ve read for a long, long time. Thank you both.

I´m sorry that I haven´t have time to answer in a while, I´ve been very busy lately.

I´ve never seen a swimming Vipera berus like you Al, but adders are quite common on many islands of the shores of Sweden. In fact there are reports of males actively swimming between the islands of the Stockholm archipelago in search of females in mating season. There are also reports from local fishermen of finding adders several metric miles from land. Knowing this, it´s not so surprising that recent studies have shown that adders in southwest Finland have genes of a western origin that are not found in populations in the rest of the Finish mainland but are present all the way across the archipelagos of Åland and Stockholm to the Swedish mainland. This means they must have spread right across the Baltic sea. Amazing.

The earliest date I´ve ever seen adders out basking in Sweden is on the 16th of February. Eventhough I know of people that have seen them basking a few days earlier this is not to be considered as normal. In the Stockholm/Uppsala area where I grew up I´d say that the normal time for the first males to wake up is in the first half of march and most males doesn´t wake up until late march or even early april. Most females wake up in april.
There are a couple of reports of adders beeing seen in the middle of winter as well, but this seem to be a different thing. That have been after several days of heavy rainfall and my guess is that the snakes have been forced to emerge from the hibernaculum because it have become flooded.

Like in Austria there´s often still some snow left when the first males emerge. Some years you can actually combinate skiing and fieldherping. Stefan Andersson, a guy doing research on berus in north Sweden, once showed me a really cool picture. It´s a berus crawling on the snow, away from a carcass of a reindeer. He told me that the snake had been basking on the carcass when he saw it. With most of the ground covered with snow, the fur must have been the perfect spot, dry and isolated from the cold from beneth.

Melanistic berus is quite common in many of the swedish populations, but are lacking from others. In the populations with melanistic animals the ratio is usually about 50/50 between them and the ”normal” colour. There are a study suggesting that the reason for that ratio (and not one colour ”winning” over the other) is that it´s an advantage for females to be black but for males it´s a disadvantage. The reason for this is the much larger predation risk for males when they are out searching for females in spring. For the more secretive females the predation risk is smaller and instead the ability to get warmed up very fast by the sun when pregnant is a great advantage.
In spring some of the black males shift into a wonderful, dark blue colour. They are just stunning! Look at the picture on the bottom of this page http://www.sthlm-herp.net/galleri/galleri_sv.html#
It´s taken by a friend of mine in one of our favorite sites outside Stockholm. Do you have this colourform in UK and Austria to?
In the Stockholm area I know a couple of areas where I can find 20-40 adders in a day, but down in Scania in southern Sweden where i now live, I´m happy to find 5.

It´s interesting to hear that ammodytes move as far as 4,3 kilometers, it´s at least two times the distance that I would have expected. It´s amazing how nature finds a way.

It was also very interesting to read about the different hunting tecniques in berus. I didn´t know that.

I didn´t want to hear about your L. viridis and Z. Longissima in the garden, however. That made me jelous...

Thank´s for the compliments about my Turkey post and the way I look on animals. I have to admit however, that I keep several snake species, but like Al say, that´s more of a substitute because I don´t have the opportunity to be out in the field as much as I want. I have no interest at all in keeping berus for example, and when I´m out in the field the last thing I want to do is bring home all beautiful animals I see. Nothing is like sitting down listening to and looking at the wonders of nature.


Petter