SNAKES that lie in wait to ambush prey, like the proverbial snake in the grass, are the most likely to suffer when people move into their neighbourhood. A study of venomous Australian snakes has found that half of the eight ambush species are endangered, while fewer than a tenth of the active hunters are at risk.
The discovery came from a search for ways of identifying vulnerable reptiles. Bob Reed of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina, and Rick Shine of Sydney University in Australia compared 10 endangered snakes with 65 more common species.
Ambushing prey turned…
