Cheshire Wildlife Trust would like to know if you spot a reptile.
Reptiles are found in a wide range of places, from sandy heaths and woodland ridges to garden compost heaps. They’re fascinating animals that are often sadly forgotten about when talking about interesting UK wildlife.
Did you know...?
Slow-worms (below) are neither worms nor snakes, but are in fact a legless lizard - you can tell it's a lizard because they're able to shed their tail and they blink.
Common lizards (below) and adders (top) are unusual among reptiles as they incubate their eggs inside their body, ‘giving birth’ to live young rather than laying eggs.
Grass snakes (below) are our longest snakes, growing up to one and a half meters in length, but they’re really a big baby. When threatened by one of its many predators, the grass snake often 'plays dead', perhaps making itself less appealing to eat.
Unfortunately, reptiles are suffering global declines, with many threatened with extinction. They’re particularly vulnerable in the UK because they tend to live in small isolated areas divided by built up areas and farmland. This means they struggle to spread out.
Nowadays they're only found in places like heaths and open woodland because they need places to shelter and hibernate. As they’re cold blooded, they also need open areas to bask to warm up before they can become active.
We know very little about where our reptiles live, meaning it’s difficult for us to protect them or to help them spread into surrounding areas.
Help us by sending us your sightings
If you see a reptile whilst out and about, email us your sightings. Photos are the most useful along with the location (address or grid reference if possible). Other useful information would be the number seen, the size, what they were doing and the type of habitat you saw them in e.g. garden, grassland, woodland, heather or moorland.
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