Planned road upgrade works for the A338 Bournemouth Spur Road led to a huge operation in 2010 to rescue thousands of reptiles from the verges that would be temporarily destroyed. Dorset County Council employed CGO Ecology to carry out the work. The reptiles were moved to several sites that had ideal habitat, but were unoccupied or had very low densities of the target species. Ongoing monitoring efforts have already shown that the translocated (re-homed) reptiles are doing well.

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.

CGO Ecology is pleased to hear that two new local ARG groups have been set up for the counties of Nottinghamshire and Hertfordshire. The national network of local voluntary groups is the backbone of herp recording and conservation in the UK.

Spring isn't quite here yet, and there's undoubtedly plenty more cold miserable weather to come, but there are already signs of the reptiles waking up. Reports have come in today from Chris Dresh (ARC Dorset Field Officer) of a sand lizard at Great Ovens Hill and an adder at Lytchett Heath in Dorset. Reports of early adders have also come in from Gower in South Wales and Anglesey in North Wales.