Matt Cooke ARC's Natur am Byth Adder Action Project Officer shares how he has been exploring adder attitudes, training and recruiting volunteers and making plans for spring 2025

Despite  adders enjoying the deep rest of hibernation over the last few months, it’s been a busy period for myself and Adder Action as we capitalised on the off-survey season to give training workshops, recruit volunteers and engage communities in advance of adder emergence and spring 2025.

On November 30^th I was lucky enough to attend my first ever ARC-BHS Joint Scientific Meeting in Bournemouth, giving a presentation on the research behind Adder attitudes, British adder folklore, and the psychology surrounding the fear of venomous snakes. It was a fantastic event that featured a wide variety of research presentations, from adder genomics comparisons between Wales and Romania, to journeying through the Greek wilderness in search of vipers and newts. It was also great to meet MSc student Henry Crisp of Bangor University, who will be working with Adder Action as part of his project to analyse Welsh Adder sloughs for the genetic consequences of population isolation and habitat fragmentation.

On December 19^th, I finished 2024 with an online training session that focused on Adder Hibernacula Ecology, delving into the details of adder hibernacula choice, overwintering behaviour, and hibernacula identification in the field. The session was recorded on zoom and will be available to rewatch soon. It was fantastic to see so many participants demonstrate enthusiasm for adder ecology and signup to identify more Welsh adder hibernacula in 2025.

The beginning of 2025 saw me in Sheffield for my second ever Herp Workers Meeting  on the 1^st and 2^nd February. I was joined by Thom Lyons of Swansea ARG to provide a workshop of Adder Attitudes at the Conference. It was a fantastic event and I’m already looking forward to HWM 2026. Our workshop was extremely fun to deliver and proved very informative, with participants creating incredible adder artwork, poetry, and short stories as we aimed to simulate an Art Science hybrid workshop, something which the literature suggests is among the most effective ways to positively impact perceptions of adders.

More recently, on the 4^th February I visited Cwm Carn Forest, near Caerphilly, with two incredibly passionate and skilled volunteers, Charis and Shiela. They showed me several promising hibernacula sites (right) and we began planning transects for the Spring to officially gather adder data in this incredible site. 

On the 10^th February, I made the beautiful journey to North Wales as I visited Bangor University to give a talk to the Herpetological Society. The talk detailed adder folklore, ecology and survey technique, and resulted in the recruitment of many enthusiastic and skilled students who I look forward to surveying with in 2025.

Adder Action is now looking forward to the next few weeks for adders to emerge and surveys to begin!  In particular, the volunteer surveyors and I will be looking to identify hibernacula across Wales as males bask close to their overwintering sites. We have an exciting year ahead. After all, according to the Chinese Calendar, it is the year of the snake!