Rare Sand Lizards Released Back to the Wild in England & Wales

During this week conservationists will be giving the UK's rarest lizard a helping hand, c.500 captive bred sand lizards will be released at 7 sites in England and Wales as part of a long-term conservation project to restore the species status and historic range.

Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (ARC), the Countryside Council for Wales and Natural England have teamed up to safeguard the future of these magnificent lizards. The lizards will be released at specially prepared nature reserves in Merseyside, west Wales, Surrey, Sussex and Dorset.

In the UK sand lizards only live on two rare habitats; sand-dune and lowland dry heath. Due to vast historic losses, and fragmentation of these habitats via development and land use change, the species has been lost from north and west Wales, Cheshire, Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall. Native populations now only remain in Merseyside, Surrey, and Dorset -though even here losses of 97%, 95% and 90% have occurred respectively.

Due to these losses the sand lizard is now part of the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan. This has three main aims - protect the sites as nature reserves where the species occurs, to manage these sites to maintain and restore suitable conditions for sand lizards and, to re-introduce sand lizards to managed sites in their former historic range.

Currently there are ten captive breeding centres for sand lizards including Chester Zoo and Marwell Wildlife, New Forest Reptile Centre and Avon Heath Country Park These centres have outdoor enclosures that mimic the sand lizard's natural environment. From here, the captive bred juveniles are released on the re-introduction site in early September to allow the animals to gradually get used to the re-introduction site before hibernation in October.

Jonathan Webster, ARC Chair of Trustees said "We are delighted with the success of the sand lizard re-introduction programme. So far the partnerships have instigated 74 re-introductions to both dune and heathland sites in 12 vice-counties and restored the species to 7 of these. 80% of these have been successful or going well and more are planned for the future."

We have high hopes for this year's re-introductions as these large sites are well managed by our partners; Countryside Council for Wales, MoD, National Trust, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Bournemouth Borough Council, Waverley Borough Council. Ongoing surveys by trained site staff, volunteers and Amphibian & Reptile Groups of the UK will let us know how the species is doing in the long term, and when they start to colonise new areas.

If people want to find out more about our native amphibians and reptiles or can help with surveying and monitoring please contact us at the address' provided below.

Male Sand Lizards (ARC)

Released Juvenile Sand Lizards (ARC)

For further information contact:

Nick Moulton / Chris Davis, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, 01202 391319, nick.moulton@arc-trust.org or iowarth@crislis.co.uk

Jim Foster, Natural England, 0300 060 1163, Jim.Foster@naturalengland.org.uk

Liz Howe, Countryside Council for Wales, 01248 387257, L.Howe@ccw.gov.uk

Tadpoles from Bedfordshire used for Norfolk toad colony

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation has recently been involved in creating a new Natterjack toad colony in Norfolk. More than 800 tadpoles were taken from the RSPB nature reserve, the Lodge near Sandy in Bedfordshire and transferred to Norfolk Wildlife Trust's reserve at Grimston Warren. It is hoped that these tadpoles will become toadlets in the next few weeks. Read the BBC News article here

Snakes go west: UK’s rarest snake to be re-introduced to Devon

Smooth snakes are to be re-introduced to Devon after an absence of 50 years. The project, organised by Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, East Devon Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust and the RSPB, with support from Natural England, will see smooth snakes from Dorset released at an RSPB nature reserve in East Devon.

The timid and non-venomous smooth snake is the UK’s rarest snake and currently is only found on lowland heaths in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset.

Historically they were more widespread, but due to habitat loss disappeared from a wide area of southern England. In Devon the last recorded sightings of smooth snakes were in the 1950s.

With the gradual restoration of heathland over the past two decades, conservationists are now hoping to return the smooth snake to much of its former range, including Devon.

This summer experts from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation will collect ten snakes, under licence, from several well-populated sites in Dorset. The snakes will be taken to East Devon and released at one of the RSPB’s heathland nature reserves. The site has been chosen due to the excellent quality of the heath, and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest as well as Special Area for Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds.

Nick Moulton from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation said “This is a tremendously exciting project for us as it marks the beginning of what we hope will be the re-establishment of the species to Devon and potentially a huge expansion of range for smooth snakes.

Historically, much of the former heathland areas have been lost to many land use pressures and the remaining sites are often fragmented and isolated. The smooth snake is not very mobile and in many cases cannot naturally re-colonise isolated heathland sites.

With this re-introduction all we do is give the animals a helping hand to cross these areas. The East Devon heaths are in superb condition and very well managed and we believe that the re-introduction has every chance of success.”

The smooth snake is a priority species in the UK and the re-introduction is fully supported and licenced by Natural England, the government’s advisor on the natural environment.

Tom Sunderland, Senior Reserves Officer at Natural England said: “We are working closely with Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and RSPB and are keen to see the success of these efforts to re-establish this nationally scarce species in Devon. This is not only good for the snakes, its also great news for heathland.”

Toby Taylor, RSPB site manager in East Devon said “Since the 1980’s the RSPB has been working hard with many other organisations to restore East Devon’s precious heaths for the benefit of a huge range of wildlife. Over the years we’ve seen a resurgence in the numbers of Dartford warblers, nightjars, silver studded blue butterflies and southern damselflies, all important species nationally with close ties to heathland. The return of the smooth snake will really complement this; it’s the icing on the cake for us.”

Smooth snake releases will continue every summer for the next few years to establish a healthy self-sustaining population.

Nick Moulton from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation added: “It’s heartening to think that this secretive snake -whose survival was once hanging on a knife-edge- is returning to Devon. To see historical landscapes like these heathlands restored and vulnerable wildlife returning is a real success story."

Learn more about the Smooth Snake >>>