The smooth snake is England's rarest reptile, confined to a few lowland heathland sites in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. Its welfare depends entirely on the quality and extent of remaining heathland.
Smooth snakes face welfare threats from heathland fragmentation, inappropriate fire management and direct persecution. As ectotherms, smooth snakes depend entirely on environmental heat sources — loss of open sunny aspects through bracken encroachment or scrub invasion prevents proper thermoregulation and digestion. Snakes that cannot reach sufficient body temperatures fail to reproduce successfully. Road building through heathland creates permanent barriers to movement. Despite full legal protection, some snakes are killed by people who mistake them for adders — an education gap that costs individual animal lives.