Wake-Up Call
Sedentary snake populations are dwindling
Several snake populations in Europe and Africa have been declining in rough unison, researchers have found.
Eleven out of 17 snake populations studied by the team have dropped in recent years, including populations in protected areas, according to a report in Biology Letters. Although the snakes lived in regions as diverse as France, Italy, the UK, and Nigeria, many of them went through a similar set of changes. Their numbers stayed steady until around 1998, dropped rapidly for about four years, and then evened out again, the authors say.
The researchers aren’t sure what’s behind the decline. But they note that three-quarters of the dwindling species are sedentary snakes that wait for their prey instead of actively foraging. Changes in habitat may have resulted in lower prey numbers, the team speculates. Whatever the cause, they say, it is likely to have a common origin such as climate change. – Roberta Kwok
Source: Reading, C.J. et al. 2010. Are snake populations in widespread decline? Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0373.
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