Conservation & Ecology UK Land Reptiles Slippery customers? Male Adder (Vipera beris) basking with a black adder variant


There are six native species of land dwelling reptiles in the UK, three snakes and three lizards. Except for the avid naturalist, few of them would sit near the top of a wish list of ‘must see’ British wildlife but, as Peter Britton explains, they are fascinating creatures and worthy of further investigation and our protection


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here are eleven native species of reptiles in and around the UK; three snakes, three lizards and five turtles. In addition, there are a number of introduced and escaped


species that have become naturalised. It is now illegal to introduce any wild species into the UK without proper authority. For the purposes of this article, I will


concentrate on the land dwelling reptiles. If you have turtles at your facility, you really do have flooding issues! The three native snake species are the


Adder, also known as the Viper (Vipera berus), grass snake (Natrix natrix) and the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca). There are two colonies of the Aesculapian rat snake (Zamenis longissimus), one in North Wales and one in Regents Park, London.


116 I PC JUNE/JULY 2017 Adder or Viper (Vipera berus)


The adder is the UK’s only venomous snake. They are not regarded as being especially dangerous or aggressive and usually only bite when alarmed or disturbed. Whilst the bites can be very painful, they are seldom fatal. However, being bitten by a three foot long snake can, understandably, be rather alarming. That said, incidences of adder bites are rare (around a hundred a year) and hospitalisation is not usually required. The last death from an adder bite was in 1975; a five year old boy. You are more likely to die from a bee sting! They are instantly recognisable by the zig-


zag pattern running the full length of their body and strong ‘V’ marking on their head. Unusual in snakes, males tend to be lighter in colour than females, whilst the rarer black


version is actually dark brown, but still carries the zig-zag markings, should you care to get close enough to look! It feeds on small mammals, birds, lizards, and amphibians and, in some cases, spiders, worms and insects. They are ovoviviparous, i.e. they produce eggs but, instead of laying the eggs, they develop within the mother’s body and hatch within the mother. Females breed once every two or three years, with litters usually being born in late summer to early autumn. Litters range in size from three to twenty, with the young staying with their mothers for just a few days. Adults grow to a total length (including


tail) of between 60-90cm (24-36in). Their bodies are stocky rather than slender. Habitat complexity is a crucial requirement in order to support its various behaviours -


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