The Adder Project is a collaborative working group of regional herpetological specialist groups with the common goal of creating and populating a geographic and information technology toolset to generate an accurate distribution map for the adder (Vipera berus) across the south east of England.

By pooling resources, and providing distribution data on an internet-based geographical information system, the partnership hopes to generate a definitive, verified and temporal distribution for the adder. By overlaying the known distribution on geological layers and aerial mapping, it is hoped to identify habitat corridors and to improve knowledge of the distribution for the species. Cross-county border mapping is designed to improve each group's understanding of the adder's distribution, leading to targeted survey effort and an expansion of the adder's known range.

An early focus for the project will be to increase the number of known meta-populations of adder between the M25 motorway and London. Only six such sites are currently recognised, and it is expected that the project will increase this number in the first year. Eventually, we hope to increase the number of known adder sites within Greater London, above the four known sites.

Main effort: Expand the known range of the adder across the South East region, by:

• Determining the known distribution of the adder across the South East region.
• Assessing prospect sightings, habitat suitability and geology to determine key survey areas
• Recording survey activity to measure presence or probable absence at key sites

This will be achieved through:
• Generating interactive mapping that fuses multiple datasets
• Providing collaborative tools which support the Partner organisations' prioritisation of survey effort