Numbers of Britain’s rarest lizard, the sand lizard, are increasing in parts of southern England - possibly due to climate change.
Researchers are investigating adder populations in southern England to see if they are suffering from genetic bottlenecking. This can occur when populations become too small, and low gene flow means they are not enriched by sharing of mutations between numerous individuals.
The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust has released a landmark report compiling the first three years of results from its nationwide widespread species surveys. The results are worrying. Adders seem to be declining fast, and were recorded from only 7% of sites surveyed. Toads, newts, lizards, and in fact all species seem to be declining, except for palmate newt.
After years of speculation, it's now official - grass snakes are native to Scotland.
Conventional wisdom has always maintained that the grass snake (Natrix natrix) is native to England and Wales, but not to Scotland. Its northern range edge curiously matches the Scottish border, but the occasional reports of grass snakes north of the border have always been dismissed as erroneous.
The current spell of warm and sunny weather is showing signs of becoming a longer phase of unseasonably mild weather, and the term 'Indian Summer' is already being banded about. With several days of sunny weather forecast ahead, daily air temperatures are expected to exceed 20°C.
tThe adder, Britain's only venomous snake, is in crisis. This is the conclusion drawn by a group of reptile experts and conservationists who attended a conference on the latest research on adders, including reports about its status in this country.
The current hot weather is making reptiles difficult to spot. In hot weather, reptiles don't need to spend much time basking, and we lose our best chance of seeing them.