Hungarian meadow viper.
10 Sept 2018
Just two weeks ago, in late August, I had the privilege of visiting the Hungarian Meadow Viper Conservation Centre, in the Kiskunság National Park of Hungary. What an amazing place! There is a very inspiring project going on there targeting a special little creature, the Hungarian meadow viper (vipera ursinii rakosiensis).
I first learned about this work being conducted halfway across the world back in 2015, as I casually perused through a dusty booklet published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which was neatly tucked away on the shelves of the WPC office in Guelph, Ontario. Since that time my curiosity was piqued, and I knew I wanted to visit the project and learn as much as I could.
Well 2018 was the year it finally happened, and I have some good news to report: the conservation project is still alive and well, and nearing its 25th year of operation! Way back in 1993, work began to assess the status of the remaining wild meadow vipers in Hungary, and roughly 10 years later, a captive breeding centre was born.
Over the past 15 years, hundreds of baby vipers were born under the protective enclosures of the centre, and raised for 3-4 years. In addition to maintaining a healthy captive breeding colony of about 30 pairs of adult snakes, the team releases 2-3 dozen head-started snakes per year to suitable habitat nearby and across the country!
The one thing I was most interested in seeing was the technique they developed for translocation: an artificial burrow design used at both the breeding centre and the release sites. The “burrow” consists of a segmented, chambered, clay pipe inserted into a wider outer pipe (i.e. a “sleeve”) buried at a 30 degree angle into the ground. The artificial burrows, with the animals destined for translocation safely inside, are simply slid out of the outer tube and transported to the release side, where they are slid back into an outer tube waiting for them. And the snakes, being released in a familiar burrow, are free to make exploratory movement in their new territory and return the safety of their “home” burrow. Pretty amazing stuff!
And the best part, Tamas Pechy and his daughter Zita gave me an artificial burrow segment as a “souvenir” so that I might replicate it for our translocation work with massasauga rattlesnakes.
Thanks so much to Tamas and Zita for your time in showing us around the Centre, for answering my many questions, and for your inspiring conservation work! For more info and videos check out our Youtube channel here, we are sharing some great videos on this project created by the folks at the Hungarian Meadow Viper Conservation Centre.
Jonathan Choquette, Lead Biologist – Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery, Wildlife Preservation Canada
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