Snake Population Declining: Study
June 15th, 2010 - 6:56 pm ICT by GDBy Meena Kar
June 15, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A recent research has revealed that snake populations across the globe are declining at an alarming rate.
Though scientists have not identified the exact cause of the declining population, they have pointed towards the combined and related causes of habitat destruction, pollution and declining prey populations as one of the probable causes.
The extensive study was conducted in several snake habitats across the planet and almost a same rate of decline was noticed. The scientists have found the data to be extremely disastrous for the future of the species. The addition of snakes to the endangered list could result in very serious repercussions in the ecological balance.
17 snake populations comprising of 8 different species were monitored across three continents for the study. It seemed to the scientists that the location of the snakes was irrelevant for the rapid declining of the numbers.
The smooth snake in the U.K., the asp viper of France and Italy, and Nigeria’s royal python were some of the worst affected snake species. The research has also claimed that the decline started in 1998, which is considered the hottest year in history. The observation has pointed several fingers to global warming being the root cause of the mysterious disappearance of the reptiles.
According to the research nearly two-thirds of the monitored snake population crashed in a short time span and there has been no recovery by the species for over a decade now. Interestingly, it is the opportunistic foragers who suffered the worst decline.
The predatory snakes of the likes of the Tiger Snake of Australia seems to have been unaffected, according to the study.
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