Conservation & Ecology


Grass snake (Natrix natrix)


survive and hatch, the eggs require a temperature of at least 21°C, but preferably 28°C, with high humidity. Rotting vegetation, such as compost heaps, are preferred locations. The young are about 18cm (7in) long when they hatch and are immediately independent. Grass snakes, as with most reptiles, are at the mercy of the thermal environment and need to overwinter in areas which are not subject to freezing. Thus, they typically spend the winter underground where the temperature is relatively stable. They are commonly found across England and Wales, but are absent from Scotland and Ireland.


Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca)


The smooth snake is non-venomous and very rare in the UK. It is confined to the heathlands of the south of England and is the smallest of the native species, growing to a maximum of 75cm (30in). It is superficially similar in appearance to


the adder, but can be distinguished by a number of features, including a rounder head and longer, slender body. It is brown or grey in colour and has dark spots on the upper surface rather than the zig-zag pattern characteristic of the adder. The eyes have a round golden iris and the head is brown with a black crown - giving rise to its latin name, (Coronella austriaca) - and black eye stripes. Its name refers to the scales, which lack the ‘roughness’ of the two other British snakes. Smooth snakes feed on smaller animals,


especially other reptiles (including other smooth snakes - no wonder it’s rare) and subdue larger prey by constriction, although, unlike true constrictors, do not actually kill by this method.


Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca)


This snake is extremely secretive, spending much of its time in crevices, holes in the ground, under stones, in loose sand and soil or concealed in litter and vegetation. When basking, they often wrap themselves around heather in order to camouflage themselves. Little is known about their reproduction, but it is thought that they breed every other year, with mating occurring in April, May and early June. Like adders, smooth snakes are ovoviviparous; the young are born live in September and October and may hibernate immediately after birth, emerging the following year, usually in March.


Aesculapian Rat snake (Zamenis longissimus)


The Aesculapian Rat Snake first arrived in the UK during the mid-sixties when the founder of the Welsh Mountain Zoo imported reptiles from Italy. At some point, the snakes must have escaped into the zoo grounds and started breeding. The first indication of their presence was when baby snakes were found in the zoo grounds in the early seventies which were first thought to be grass snakes due to the yellow marking on their head. Over the next thirty years, occasional


adults and babies were observed at the zoo in Colwyn Bay, only very rarely being found outside the grounds. The snakes have remained at the zoo grounds and surrounds and have not spread. The Aesculapian snake is a harmless, non-


venomous species which feeds mainly on rodents, which might suggest why they have stayed close to the zoo. Their presence is deemed as beneficial due to a decrease in the number of rodent pests. They are native to central Europe and are


already a foot long when they hatch, before growing to their adult length of four to five feet. Some have been recorded growing to a length of eight feet! A second colony was found living close to the Regent Canal in Regents Park a few years ago, prompting the tabloids to warn people to “lock up their cats and dogs”. In truth, they pose little or no threat to pets. Similar to the Welsh colony, it is believed


they originally escaped from London Zoo and have chosen to stay close by due to the abundance of suitable prey. Even though it is thought they have been


resident since the mid-seventies, discussions are ongoing regarding a possible cull. This has prompted Dr Wolfgang Wuster of Bangor University, who works with the Welsh colony, to call any proposal “a waste of resources”. He said: “Any attempt to eradicate the


Aesculapian snake would require justification of resources to be devoted to an almost certainly non-problematic introduced species with little prospects of spread, as opposed to the many far more damaging species already out there.” “From a wider and more philosophical


point of view, we should ask ourselves what we can really conserve.”


LIZARDS


The three species of UK lizard are the Slow- worm (Anguis fragilis), Common or Viviparous lizard (Lacerta zootoca vivipara) and the Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis).


Slow worm (Anguis fragilis)


The slow worm is a legless lizard (no, it hasn’t fallen into a flagon of beer), and is often mistaken for a snake. However, there are certain features that distinguish a slow


Aesculapian Rat snake (Zamenis longissimus) 118 I PC JUNE/JULY 2017


Slow worm (Anguis fragillis)


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156