In this short adder film you will see a male adder that is preparing to slough, or shed his skin. When this happens the snake's eye scale turns blue as fluid builds up between the new inner and old outer skin. The fluid helps the snake discard the old skin.
When this happens the snake's vision is severely impaired and it can cause irregular behaviour, like you will see in this clip.
Adders do not generally approach large mammals as they have identified them as a possible threat, not a food source, but when their vision is impaired they are attracted to the heat source as they can not identify what it is, or how big it is. All they see is a heat signature and a possible meal. In this case he was focusing on my camera and my hands.
I was lying on my belly using my elbows as support when he started to approach me and this is when I had to quickly shuffle backwards. At one point he actually licked the front of my camera!
I hope you enjoy my video.
Rob
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