Anti‐Snake Ballistic Missiles: Explosions Trigger Immediate Movement in Snakes

ABSTRACT Biodiversity and conservation are often the least noticed during armed conflicts. From October 1st, 2024, and again between June 13 and 24th, 2025, a brief but intense military conflict broke out between Israel and Iran. Iran primarily launched ballistic missile strikes, which Israel attempted to intercept using dedicated missiles. During both periods, we conducted a movement‐monitoring experiment on Spalerosophis diadema snakes using accelerometer biologgers. In total, movements of four snakes were recorded during the conflict. We found that snakes exhibited immediate movement responses to missile attacks that produced loud explosion noises. Moreover, the strength of these movements increased with the intensity of the attacks; however, snakes showed little to no response to such noises after feeding. Here, we report for the first time the movement responses of snakes to missile attacks producing loud explosions. While the consequences of human armed conflict for wildlife may vary depending on the context, our findings emphasize that the role of wildlife as potential victims is often overlooked.