Photographing adders wrong?

Is taking photos of adders wrong??  Interesting article in todays Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/13/animal-cruelty-death-camera-phone-selfie-giant-python 

I've no doubt that photographing adders can significantly disturb them and cause small populations in particular to abandon traditional hibernacula etc - this has happened in Epping Forest, for example.  A friend of mine was photographing an adder (from a path, with a long lens) in the Forest a week or two ago when a party approached him and asked if they could also photograph the snake.  He agreed (what else could he do?) at which the 'leader' proceeded to hook the snake out of the vegetation and plonk it in front of the rest of them, so they could get their photos.  The doubtless traumatised animal was then replaced after the party were satisfied.  OK, so this is not as bad as adder-bashing that happened more often in the past, and if adders were common it might not be so bad, but many populations are isolated and fragmented and as such pressure from photographers could be the final nail in their coffins.  There was talk of raising the protected status of the adder to that of smooth snake and sand lizard a while ago, in which case it would require a licence to approach them for photography, but I've not heard any more about this for a while.

Well, recently I was on holiday down Devon and on the way back from the beach I spotted this little beauty crossing the path and took a quick snap from about four feet away. She was trying to climb up the steeper side of the path opposite from where it had come from. Now I posted this pic on facebook and got absolutely slaughtered for posing an Adder. They accused me of everything, from dropping it to flicking it and more. I explained that I have taken hundreds of photos of Adders and usually from a 400mm + 1.6 adaptor type range and still I got stick. Its a shame all these amateurs are now giving the genuine studyists (if that's a word) a bad name!

Hi Rob

Sorry for the delay in replying - I missed your question.

No problem that I am aware of. I will post this with an adder shot I took at one of our Sussex sand lizard sites - again, with a long lens from several feet away with no disturbance. If you see a piccie - it works OK!




All the best
Chris

Ahhhhh,

weird, its done it now :-)