Scientists from Natural England, the Zoological Society of London and Oxford University are investigating the current genetic diversity of adders in southern England following fears that the snakes are declining rapidly in the wild. If adder populations have become too small and isolated, the snakes may be suffering from inbreeding depression which would reduce their ability to survive and reproduce successfully and lead to further population declines.This story has featured widely in the news recently, see the BBC articles:
And read CGO Ecology's blog post: