Year of the Snake: yes, snake, those living ribbons that push quietly through the grass, glide between treetops, and swim in Earth’s hottest seas. They are dazzling, powerful and shy. They can be deadly as tigers, as controversial as hyenas, or as beautiful as tropical birds.
This is a Borneo keeled pit viper, and yes, it is venomous. Family Snake boasts some eye-wateringly hazardous sons, but that is not the whole story. Snakes play the same game as everything else: sometimes predator, sometimes prey, often persecuted by people, occasionally thriving in the opportunities we unwittingly provide. Some are critically endangered, and others, through no fault of their own, are doing the endangering; humans have released a fair few species outside their native range, and that never ends well.
Thirst snake, Mexico
On my travels I’ve met many characters who have coiled themselves around my memories: a clownishly clumsy parrot snake who kept tumbling from tropical trees into our Mexican camp, a dignified bull snake hissing past my boots in prairie Canada, and a paradise tree snake that graced a boiling Singapore morning.
Prairie Rattler
England, too, has wild snakes. And Surrey is one of the better counties for them. Our star is the smooth snake, a reclusive lizard-hunter of sandy heaths.
Much bigger and easier to spot is the grass snake. It too is non-venomous, and often startles gardeners by swimming through their ponds.
And then, there’s the adder. Britain’s only venomous snake is rapidly declining and I see it seldom. This brief and photograph-unfriendly sighting was on the cold moors of the North Pennines a couple of years ago.
But that trademark black zigzag is fading from our cultural memory. Adders are very vulnerable to disturbance and habitat loss, and conservationists also look askance at the millions of pheasants released into the countryside for shooters each year – some evidence suggests that these non-native birds are horribly effective reptile predators.
But adders are snakes, and that name carries baggage. Protected they may be, but illegal killing reputedly continues. Let us hope this Year of the Snake will see an improvement in human behaviour towards all our wild neighbours, controversial or not.
A Walk with Wildlife 
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