Nose - horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) – Conservation problems in Serbia and Montenegro

Abstract

Until recently, the nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) was not included in the national lists of protected and/or controlled species in Serbia and Montenegro. Only few months ago, legal control of the collecting of specimens was set, but only in Republic of Serbia. Adequate legislation is still missing in Montenegro as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Additional problem occurred when the borders among mentioned ex-Yugoslav republics were established – adequate and precise legislations concerning the trans-bordering import and export of specimens from natural populations of this and other species have not been introduced. Furthermore, the lack of educated custom officers still make the problems in establishing control of exploitation of the nose-horned vipers. In 1993, the Institute for Immunology and Virusology “Torlak” in Belgrade founded the program for antiviperinum producing. The lack of legislative disabled continuous controlling of the effects of long-term collecting of specimens for these purposes, from territory of Serbia, Montenegro as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to lack of population studies in our and neighbouring countries, conservation status of this species could not be assessed. We present the first effects of implementations of new legislative of the controlling the conditions for the antiviperinum serum production as well as our own experiences in the field. We propose the measures that need to be introduced into sustainable management of the natural populations of Vipera ammodytes in Serbia and Montenegro.