The Regional Species Protection Service and the management of the Sa Dragonera Natural Park have launched an urgent campaign to search for and trap invasive snakes, placing 95 traps in this protected natural area after a horseshoe snake was detected in April. The campaign has been launched urgently and intensively to preserve the island’s native biodiversity after a camera captured the first image of a horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis) on the islet at the end of April, according to a statement from the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment.
The discovery was made thanks to a camera trap installed by researchers from the University of Oxford to monitor the nests of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus). Sa Dragonera is home to an extraordinary population of Balearic lizards (Podarcis lilfordi), as well as several colonies of seabirds, such as the European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and the Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), all of which are protected species, as well as the sea eagle.
Given the negative consequences that the presence of this snake could have for the biodiversity of Sa Dragonera, an intensive action plan has been designed, which will be implemented by the Consortium for the Recovery of the Fauna of the Balearic Islands (Cofib) and whose main objective is to protect and conserve the native biodiversity.
A total of 95 snake traps will be installed, 85 of which will be distributed around Dragonera, especially on the east coast, from the Tramuntana lighthouse to the Llebeig lighthouse. A further seven will be installed on the coast of Mallorca closest to Sa Dragonera and another three on the islet of Es Pantaleu, to rule out the presence of horseshoe snakes.
All the traps, which will be checked regularly by Cofib technicians, will be georeferenced and labelled, and will be located away from the park’s paths and routes. The Director General for the Environment and Forest Management, Anna Torres, said that priority has been given to this ‘intensive campaign in terms of resources and personnel, with the aim of preserving one of the most valuable areas of the Balearics’.
‘Invasive snakes, in environments as fragile as the islands, can pose a serious problem,’ she warned. She considers it necessary to safeguard protected and endangered species “that could be affected by the presence of invasive snakes’