to think slow worms are lovley

[suzziearoundtheworld]

I have a lot of them in my garden, I've left parts overgrown for them and have made a great deal of effort to stop cats coming in. But no one else seems to like them, almost every friend is shit scared of these lovely things. Its such a shame they are native and at risk

oooh am jealous
does anyone know how to encourage them? we have plenty of frogs and the occassional hedgehog....would LOVE a slow worm

Slow-worms are wonderful, they have the most amazing polished sheen. I see slow-worms, grass snakes and adders regularly at a nature reserve just up the road, on the North Downs. Here are a couple of recentish pics of adders from there to add to the reptilian vibe round here :)

MrsMorton, I love the grass snake too

I've never seen a slow worm or a snake in the UK. And I have an allotment.

But I have seen glis glis, and 99.999999% sure, a wallaby.

My knowledge of them is limited to Enid Blyton and Tammylan. You grab them by the tail and they leave the tail and slither off,right? But Tammylan says to hold them by their head. Right?

Never seen one but would love to. Just to try that out. Enid's Tammylan says it doesn't hurt them.

Or is this another reptile?

Would love to have reptiles in our garden!

Oh. It does hurt them.
www.animalanswers.co.uk/blog/slow-worms-amputate-their-own-tails-to-escape-predators/

How sad. Glad I didn't get the opportunity to try it out now.

One of our cats brings them in too but just plays with them. I take them outside and they quickly dive off into the snowdrops again. They are lovely.

I love slowworms, but seem to have fewer since my tidy minded neighbour moved in as I think he uses garden sprays. Saw one on the hot pavement a while back and was able to put him back over a wall into the hedge before he cooked/ made it into the traffic.

I've seen wallabies on The Roaches (sp.?) in Staffordshire. Only seen a grass snake once (in Buckinghamshire). Never seen a glis glis AFAIK.

Edible dormice (or Glis glis if you want to be scientific-namey) are still quite rare away from the Chilterns.

Edible dormice. Lovely. I am not sure what's going on with DBs are they protected or something?

I am glad to hear that the other cats on MN that catch slow worms are all like Sparklingcat and just bring them back and go 'Look at this!' before losing interest. I am guessing they aren't v tasty.

Edible dormice aren't exactly protected, as they are non-native and considered to be invasive, but only licensed operators are allowed to trap them. Not sure what the law says about eating them :D

I lived in the Chilterns for ten years, that might explain why I've heard of them, but I don't recall ever seeing one. Muntjack deer are another thing I used to see lots of there, we moved to Hampshire 10+ years ago and I've never seen one here. Do get red kites though, they have spread from the Chilterns.

DD closely admiring a slow worm.

I did say something along the lines of 'get the poor creature away from your face FFS' immediately after taking the photo.

Phoenix losing its tail has a big effect on any lizard... it takes an enormous amount of metabolic energy to regrow it (and it never grows back quite as good as the original one) and usually means that they won't get to breed that year.

I think the slow worm is closely admiring your DD Crabby. My DS is 16 and he would squeal and run away probably. I was called to get a bee out of his room yesterday.

Slow worms are a type of limbless reptile. They look like friendly snakes. (Although I like snakes too)
I'm very jealous-i've always lived in hope of seeing a slow worm since reading the enid bylton adventure books where he has lizzie the slow worm!
(And an Adder since reading the animals of farthing wood )

Here's a wall lizard with a regrown tail (pic taken in France but they do occur in a few places in S England). The new tail is a lot shorter than an intact one would be, as well as being a different colour. The vertebral bones don't regenerate either, just cartilage.

Sometimes if the tail is injured but not amputated, that can trigger the regrowth thing and the lizard ends up with two tails.

We get nests of them in the compost. They are beautiful-I love the coppery coloured ones. I don't like it if the cats bring them in the house and I have to pck up one which is thrashing about and sheds its tail, tho!

BTW I live in Hampshire on the edge of a market town (fields at back, but about to be built on).

They're lovely, at my last house they used to live in the compost bin, our cat would sit and watch them for hours

Sparkling DD insists on picking up bees who are looking a bit dozy or in a vulnerable position (due to being too heavy / off their tits on nectar and too drunk to fly) and moving them to a safe place. She once ran all the way back from the park with a dying bumble bee for me to try to revive it. She's only been stung once (very lightly), astonishingly, considering the hundreds of bees she's pestered handled.

theforagingphotographer.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/different-coloured-slow-worms/p1210294/Here are some interesting colour variations, including a (blurry) pic of a rare melanistic slow worm. I took all these at Fleet Pond in Hampshire. Great place for herp-hunting (hunting with a camera, obviously!) as there are 'tins' or 'felts' there to encourage reptiles for survey purposes.