Snakes Are A Plague On Ibiza

Snakes Are A Plague On Ibiza, Since they arrived unexpectedly in the early 2000s, snakes have become a local preoccupation in Ibiza—for the iconic Ibiza wall lizard, and for the humans who brought them in, too. Though the term “invasive species” can imply some measure of intent, snakes did not simply decide to come to Ibiza, much like wasps did not ship themselves to Hawaii inside of Christmas trees, or how Canadian beavers did not paddle all the way down to Tierra del Fuego determined to plow through an old-growth forest. People brought them. The earliest government documentation of a snake in Ibiza was in the village of Sant Josep de sa Talaia, after a man sprayed water inside the trunk of an olive tree imported from Córdoba, Spain, and inadvertently caused the animal to flee.“There was a story on the island that snakes will never survive because of the soil,” said Bernd Brosius, a retired landscaping business owner. Pliny the Elder declared something to this effect in the year 77, and the island itself, Eivissa, is believed to have been named after the ancient god Bes, who was sometimes depicted with a knife in one hand and a snake in the other (or occasionally strangling snakes with both his hands). Until 2003, no wild snakes of any species had been documented on the Pityusic islands, aside from a dwarf viper that disappeared when humans first arrived 4,000 years ago. This ominous historical context has not gone unremarked upon in scientific papers, newspaper articles and a letter from local activists scolding government officials. Local reporting on the topic has been extensive—the Spanish newspaper El Mundo dubbed Ibiza and Formentera an “Eden for snakes”; another 2018 article featured a dead snake, several meters long, hanging off the claw of a bulldozer with its entrails hanging out. There’s even a Facebook group for English-speaking Ibiza residents called “Snakes In Ibiza No Thank You” dedicated to snake news, trapping methods, and the occasional photograph, including one of a small boy clutching a large snake vertically in one hand, his eyes wide with wonder.

Words Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7w5ex/a-plague-on-ibiza-v27n3

Ibiza's lizard population is threatened, at least three species of snakes have arrived on Ibiza over the past 15 years, and of these, the horseshoe whip snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis) is the most problematical. It is a slender long-tailed snake with spots running down its body, and it can grow up to 1.5 m in length. The good news is that these snakes are not poisonous. It may bite if you try to grab it, but there is no great danger for humans. For centuries Ibiza was famous for being completely free of snakes, but that is no longer the case. This situation poses a serious threat to the biodiversity of Ibiza’s ecosystem and also to its image for tourism. After a slow start, the government has now taken an active role with a comprehensive eradication program that began in 2016. The importation of olive trees is much more carefully regulated, and the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries has installed more than a thousand snake traps on Ibiza and Formentera. Most of these are a type of cage that is bated with a live mouse to attract the snake. The mouse is not in danger as the snake is automatically trapped before it can reach the mouse. More info http://www.ibicasa.com/en/articulo.php?id=984&edicion=90

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