Snake ID Please

[demicav]

This is one of the reasons that I'm so protective over the Adders I watch regularly in Pwllheli. Even the kids know they have to keep quiet about them. I've even shielded them from the view of people that are passing. I'd love to be able to share the experience, especially with those that would respect them but you just don't know who you can trust.

[ViperaBerus]

Absolutely. But don't you find it embarrassing when you are out reptile hunting and someone comes along. You just look dodgy trying to look natural and like you are just casually but slowly lurking in the heaths minding your own business

It's even worse if you work with refugia (tins), I'm constantly looking around suspiciously when lifting them to make sure no one is looking.

[demicav]

Originally Posted by ViperaBerus

Absolutely. But don't you find it embarrassing when you are out reptile hunting and someone comes along. You just look dodgy trying to look natural and like you are just casually but slowly lurking in the heaths minding your own business

It's even worse if you work with refugia (tins), I'm constantly looking around suspiciously when lifting them to make sure no one is looking.

Lol, that's so true. I can relate to it so well. I've pretended to be talking about flowers, doing up a shoe lace, anything that keeps the Adders safe. I once got strange looks though as a family was up there once with a very young toddler wandering or should I say wobbling through the area very close to where the Adders were. I was sort of hovering round the child thinking "please don't fall into the gorse" and was very close to giving mum a little piece of advice but luckily they left quite quickly so I didn't need to say anything. It's like our own piece of paradise there.

[ViperaBerus]

Originally Posted by ViperaBerus

The spinal structure, dead eyes and the fact that the tail has been one third diconnected from the body in that picture suggests being hit with a stick at least three times



I'd personally say that that Agilis is 100% dead!!

Killing Slow Worms or any British reptile is a criminal offence.

Actually meant Anguis there Mind must have strayed....

[JackintheGreen]

I guess I was understating it a bit! I would have thought if it were dead the original poster would have noticed, but now you point out the damage, it does look worse than I thought.

I was walking though Cheddar Gorge a few years ago when I came across a couple of slow worms dead on the road. A little further on I found two boys with another one writhing in its death throes. I was convinced they had put the poor thing on the road in the first place but I couldn't be sure. It's very sad that some people would kill such a beautiful creature.

[Monkey Orchid]

When I worked on a nature reserve in Oxfordshire, we used to find a lot of slow worms that had been pecked to death by pheasants. It used to make me furious - wretched introduced gamebirds, infesting the landscape and causing havoc with native species. All so a bunch of well-heeled eejits could come and spend a weekend blowing away birds too stupid to duck.

(OK, rant over now!)