Meadow viper  (Vipera ursinii)

The precise threats facing the meadow viper across its range are unknown, but habitat destruction is likely to have played an important role in the decline of the species (5). Recent studies have been made of the Hungarian meadow viper (V. u. rakosiensis) subspecies, which is estimated to have only a very small remaining population and is in imminent danger of extinction (10). The decline of the Hungarian meadow viper has been largely attributed to the growth in agricultural land, which has caused a great reduction and fragmentation in the habitat of the meadow viper. Even small barriers of farmland are thought to reduce movement and outbreeding with other populations. Small, isolated populations are not only more vulnerable to extinction through events such as disease epidemics, or storms, but they are also more likely to suffer from loss of genetic diversity through inbreeding, massively increasing the risk of extinction. Loss of genetic variation can result in a high percentage of stillbirths or deformities, which have been recorded for this subspecies, and low genetic diversity is currently considered the prime threat to the Hungarian meadow viper (5). The Hungarian meadow viper is also thought to have suffered from over-collection from the wild, both for the pet trade and scientific purposes (5).

Meadow vipers appear in a number of protected areas, including the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in Romania (V. u. moldavica) (11) and Bjelasica Mountain National Park (V. u. macrops) in eastern Montenegro (10). Attempts are being made to preserve the very small Hungarian population through a four year programme funded by the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs and the EU LIFE-Nature fund, which focuses on four major tasks: habitat reconstruction, monitoring and related studies, a publicity campaign and the establishment of the Viper Conservation and Breeding Centre (10). This Centre started operating in 2004 with ten adult snakes collected from different populations (10) and, as of August 2005, four females had produced a total of 69 offspring, 25 the first year and 44 the second (3). These vipers will hopefully be released into selected habitat in the future (10). Should the release of these snakes into the wild prove successful, captive breeding could be a viable option for the effective conservation of the other subspecies, especially the Critically Endangered V. u. moldavica. The fact that the Hungarian meadow viper appears to breed well in captivity is therefore extremely encouraging and provides new hope for the future survival of the meadow viper.