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RAUK - Archived Forum - Slow-worm behaviour

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Slow-worm behaviour:

Author	Message
Alan Thurbon Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 No. of posts: 1 View other posts by Alan Thurbon	Posted: 09 Jun 2003 A lady in Portsmouth tells me she has slow-worms in her compost heap. She saw that a large one was holding a smaller one in its mouth, gripping it just behind the head. This lasted for more than a hour, and both survived. The incident was repeated, and the smaller one was later found dead. Any ideas on what was going on? Thanks Alan

Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps	Posted: 09 Jun 2003 Adult slow worms eat baby slow worms, never mix them in the same bag or container. Tony

betty Member Joined: 28 Aug 2003 No. of posts: 3 View other posts by betty	Posted: 28 Aug 2003 I have never experienced caniballism by slow-worms, despite keeping adults and juveniles in captivity for several years. More likey, the behaviour described is that typical of mating and courthship, when males grasp females around the head and throat. Females and occasionally males (mistaken identity?) often show the tell-tale mating "scars" on the throat throughout May and June. Very rarely, the "matee" can be injured or strangled, which is probably what happened to the smaller individual in this case. Dr. Renata Platenberg Reptile ecologist

monobrowmark Member Joined: 07 Sep 2003 No. of posts: 1 View other posts by monobrowmark	Posted: 07 Sep 2003 I found a slow worm on the Cornish cliffs a few days ago. When I got near to it it froze for a few seconds before slowly curling its tail. Then it did something really cool; it began to crawl backwards (tail first) giving the impression that the tail was the head. I assume that this is a behaviour to distract predators from the animal's actual head. Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

- Slow-worm behaviour

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