We were lucky enough to have a visit from Rick Sharp who works for Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (www.arc-trust.org) and he brought along a slow worm, grass snake and smooth snake.

He visited all the Forest School groups as well as the Little Foresters Toddler Group and talked about the reptiles then let people hold them. Here is a little information about each of them:

Slow Worm Anguis fragilis

Slow Worm taken by Chris Dresh

A legless lizard rather than true snake the Slow Worm is our commonest reptile in Britain; occurring across the UK but most abundant in the South. More tolerant of different habitats than other reptiles, living mostly under dense vegetation or underground, can be found in gardens were they use compost heaps for hibernation.

Slow Worms feed mostly on slugs and worms hunting at dusk and after dark. Home range tends to be small, at only 200square metres, with little seasonal movement apart from winter when communal hibernation requires small distances to be travelled.

Females can be identified by the darker sides and dark line along spine, some individuals also have blue spots (the more spots the older the individual). Slow worms give birth to live young around August; the eggs are retained in the body with the young being born in a thin egg sack with is immediately ruptured releasing the young lizards. Young lizards look like females but also have a distinct spot on the top of the head.

Grass Snake Natrix Natrix

Grass Snake taken by Howard Inns

Our largest snake with the biggest recorded specimens at 5 feet long; occurs over much of England and Wales but only a few sightings in Southern Scotland. Restricted to Low land areas but can occur over a wide variety of habitats from woods to dry chalk downland, although a water element is need for hunting. Generally identified by its olive green colour and distinctive yellow and black collar behind the head.

A very active snake the grass snake can cover several kilometres in a season and consequently has a large home range. They are not so readily attached to certain locations for hibernation etc. using any suitable place at the time. Grass snake primarily feed on amphibians/fish and are very good swimmers but will also take small mammals and fledgling birds when they can be found in trees and small scrub.

The only British snake to lay eggs with a typical female laying between 15 – 40 eggs in warm/humid decaying organic material i.e. compost heaps. These do tend to be traditional sites used by several females year after year. The young hatch between August and September and quickly disperse.

Smooth Snake Coronella austriaca

Smooth snake taken by Ben Limburn

Britain’s rarest reptile now restricted to the heaths of Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. Smooth Snakes are very secretive animals preferring deep grass and mature heather habitats, a tolerance for lower temperatures means that even basking takes place in deep cover with only small parts of the animal exposed to the sun.

The Smooth Snake can grow up to 70cm in length but tends to be quite gracile in nature. The background scale colour and side stripes can have them identified as grass snakes but the absence of the yellow collar and the heart shaped marking on the head means ID is quite easy once you get a good look.

The Smooth Snake is an ambush predator that constricts its prey, in Britain this mostly consists of other reptiles such as common lizards and slow worms but also small mammals such as shrews. This means that Smooth Snakes tend to only move small amounts around 20m a day and unlike Grass Snakes and Adders do not seem to undertake large seasonal movements

Smooth Snakes give birth to live young, normally around 4 – 15, in August, normally finding a humid secretive spot under deep cover or inside a large grass tussock.

Little Foresters group