It Doesn't Adder Up

Nigel Hand has suggested that the most serious danger to the Adder (Vipera berus) is the release of pheasants on shooting estates close to where the snake lives (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/01/adder-extinct-across-britain-snake-threat-game-birds-release). The Adder is Britain's only poisonous snake (feeding mainly on mice and voles) and is the reptile with the widest distribution (from the Arctic circle to Southern Italy). It produces live young (not eggs) and hibernates here in the winter. Unfortunately, it has no protection against pheasants and other alien game birds, whose feathers protect them from the snake's (in this case) self-defensive bite (there is no way they could swallow a pheasant). The pheasants peck adult Adders to death and swallow the young whole. Hand, suggests that without intervention, the Adder will be extinct in most UK areas by 2032.