Welcome to the first established County Amphibian & Reptile Group
Aesculapian snakes
These large 2 metre snakes, which are non-natives and should not be able to survive in Britain, are doing just fine in North Wales. Tom Major at Bournemouth University has been tracking these snakes and has found that they are surviving by living close to human habitation. Unusual behaviour for snakes which usually avoid urban areas. They are good climbers and get through cold periods by moving into lofts or compost heaps. Aesculapian snakes have also been found in the Czech Republic where they have adopted the same mode to survive the cold.  Aesculapian snake
FelixReimann, CC BY-SA 3.0
Nadders should you be a fan of the Canterbury Tales you will know that in Middle English Vipers beris was a nadder from the Old English nā̆ddre. I suppose a nadder easily becomes an adder. Adder taking a rapid swim, BBC videoclip Toads in Trees A report on the New Scientist website tells us of recent research on the tree climbing habits of the common toad (Bufo bufo). Watching a toad’s ungainly gait one might be surprised to learn of this climbing ability -------> Adders Dancing in Pembrokeshire super video from SxARG member, Sam Kelly. Mouth and Stomach Brooders. A slightly unusual article from Froglife. Link
Success in Yosemite
Some brighter light at the end of the chytrid tunnel. Yellow legged mountain frogs are thriving again after a major 17 year long reintroduction programme by conservationists. The new population has some resistance to the normally deadly skin infection and consequently populations are increasimg. More here. New research on basking banks
Results of a 5 year project by the University of Reading and Froglife seem to show positive results with more sightings of lizards initially and later other species. Link Overwintering as a Juvenile
Latest Froglife Croak here A Simple Way of Combating Chytrid Infection It seems Chytrid, which causes a deadly skin disease, is susceptible to high temperature. Froggy saunas have proved a powerful defence for some species. More... Test your observation skills with this great video from ARG UK Finding terrestial GCNs using a trained dog. Presentation from the ARG UK site The Importance of Ponds Ponds have generally been heavily neglected by world conservationists perhaps because of their small size compared with other water habitats, In fact, despite their small size ponds are far more diverse than other water bodies. Ponds are more diverse, because of their relative isolation. Flowing water in streams and rivers mixes everything up into a relatively homogeneous medium. By contrast ponds maybe clear due to tannins, cloudy because of livestock disturbance, sunlit or heavily shaded. This diversity leads to a subsequently diverse flora and fauna. Ponds may have been neglected just because they are small, for example the EU Freshwater Directive ignores water bodies smaller than 50 hectares, but change may be on the way. The Ramsar Convention, an international treaty, introduced a resolution on small wetlands and the EU funded project, PONDERFUL, is collecting data on European ponds. Based on New Scientist article June 24. Rare Good News on Chytrid Roland Knapp, University of California, has had success in re-establishing populations of two species of yellow legged mountain frog, Rana muscova and Rana sierriae. The researchers moved frogs from wild populations which appeared to be resistant to areas where all frogs had been lost, a process known as evolutionary rescue where population recover through the spread of beneficial genes. Over 15 years hundreds of frogs were translocated by helicopter or snow-packed back packs. Genetic studies found differences in the immune system genes in the translocated frogs, which suggests this is the reason for their success. 
USFWS/Rick Kuyper, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Tap Dancing Frog
New Scientist video of this odd tapping behaviour to flush out prey. Link Female Frogs include playing dead in their armoury for avoiding over-amorous males. other strategies include rotating away and mimicking male release calls (Carolin Dietrich, Museum of Natural History, Berlin). Females can be drowned by too much attention multiple males.
 Angus Kirk
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Paul Stevens calming a smooth snake. Click picture for video
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Effects of Pet Flea Products on the Environment
Interesting croak from Froglife Pollution and Biodiversity A recent lab based study looking to see if biodiversity reduces parasite infections finds that the reduction is only seen when there is salt pollution. Link Adder Tracking
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South Downs dewpond
Dancing Adders. YouTube video
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