The Dance of the Adder

I’ve been watching adders at my local spot for 10 years now and this is only the second time I’ve been lucky enough to see two males battling over a female. I’ve seen plenty of close calls but quite often one male will be larger than the other, resulting in the smaller snake getting chased away, without any “dancing”.

This time, however, the two males were evenly matched. So much so that the tussle went on for over half an hour. One other person who was photographing, filled up their memory card, went back to their car for a spare and was surprised to see the adders still at it, some 15 or so minutes later.

Venom is a precious commodity for an adder so neither combatants will attempt to bite the other. Instead they wrestle for dominance, coiling themselves around one another, attempting to pin their opponent to the ground.

Whilst I had plenty of time to take photos, alongside video, they were far from easy to photograph but I was just happy to witness this fantastic spectacle once more.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the video, or click here.