Juvenile Adder, male of female?

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

Hi all,

I took this pic a couple of days ago. It was about the size of a fifty pence coin! I'm leaning towards a female as males generally exhibit the more intense black zig zag pattern. However, I have shots of juvenile females from the past which are a much lighter brown than this one, so not entirely certain.

They can be hard to tell apart sometimes, especially at this stage! Does anyone have an opinion?

[marvin]

hi

you're right, they are difficult to tell apart.

i was waiting for someone else to have a stab first before embarrassing myself but here goes. i definitely wouldn't rule out the possibility of it being male, in fact i am leaning that way...those markings look pretty dark to me.

sorry i can't come up with anything more definitive but i am still relatively new to it myself. hopefully someone else out there can be more certain.

tim

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

I personally don't think you can tell from this photo. You need to see it's tail to be able to confirm the sex of it. If it has a relatively short stumpy tail it is a female. If it has a longer more elongated lizard like taper to the tail it is a male. Colouration is not always a definitive with being able to sex an Adder as I have personally seen very dark males and light females.

Another way of telling the sex is the time they emerge; males come out of hibernation around 2-4 weeks before the females but I have seen both males and females out basking this year. So sadly this won't aid in your decision but perhaps useful for future.

If I was to guess as to a sex of this I would go for a female. The black markings as Marvin said are pretty dark but this is probably due to it having shed its skin fairly recently.

Hope this helps a little....look forward to seeing what others think.

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

At the time this photo was taken (nearly a week ago) only the adult/sub adult males were out basking. I was on site yesterday and spotted another 3 of these juveniles and also spotted what I think was an adult female, although I didn't get close enough to confirm this.

I realise the males are always out first, but wasn't sure whether this behaviour was representative of the juveniles too. These little ones were very brave as they don't seem to have a sense of fear like the larger individuals. Hopefully i'll have more luck in a few weeks for the peak of breeding season!

[Al Hyde]

Hi All,
By the narrow markings and faint spotting down the sides , also the brownish labials i'd say most likely female.
This is not set in stone, as we've just discussed over on another forum, and telling the sex of juveniles is never easy.

Scarlet P is quite right, the only way we'd tell 100% isby the tail or probing

Cheers,
Al

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

Thanks for the reply Al,

Yes i was leaning towards a female.

This one was taken near Elstead in Surrey.