Overview
- CREAF reported this week that the non‑native Hufeisennatter (Hemorrhois hippocrepis) now occupies more than 90 percent of Ibiza’s land area.
- The Balearic government has declared an ecological emergency and stepped up measures including large‑scale trapping, intensive monitoring, creation of snake‑free refuges and captive breeding for threatened lizards.
- Authorities have captured thousands of snakes — more than 4,400 in 2025 and over 16,000 since 2016 — but scientists warn the species keeps spreading by swimming between islands, with a filmed swim of about 430 metres from Ibiza to a nearby islet.
- Researchers say the invasion has driven steep declines and local extinctions of the Pityusen mauereidechse on small islets, removing seed dispersers and insect controllers and risking broader ecosystem change.
- Scientists trace the likely introduction to imported ornamental olive trees in the early 2000s and caution that, if current trends continue, Ibiza could be largely colonized by the snakes by the end of 2027.