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Wall lizards: |
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FB knowles Member Joined: 17 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 5  View other posts by FB knowles |
Posted: 15 Jul 2003 Hello, As a keen amateur herpetologist and photographer i am keen to photograph our native herps, i am also very interested in some of the introduced specie too. I have herd that there is a colony of Wall lizards (Podacris muralis)living in Farnham castle, Surrey. Does anybody know the status of this colony. Fairbrass Knowles, Cobham, Surrey. Fairbrass Knowles |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 15 Jul 2003 Apparently after a bit of palava with some renovation work (and the addition of artifical tunnels so as the lizards can access the interior cavity of the walls) they are still going strong. An estimate from this year was 'a couple of hundred' individuals. Cheers, Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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FB knowles Member Joined: 17 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 5 View other posts by FB knowles |
Posted: 16 Jul 2003 Thanks for that Lee. Will have to get down there and see if i can spot any. Fairbrass Knowles Fairbrass Knowles |
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Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 16 Jul 2003 I didn't know that! and i pass the darn place three times a week. Tony |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 17 Jul 2003 A few ref for british pops is at: http://www.havnn.net/oonews.htm I'm affraid I cannot find the article about the castle rennovation that mentioned a population count, it was on a local newspaper site the other week and seems to have dissappeared from the search engines. And I couldn't beleive this, but they're fund raising for the ones at Ventor! http://www.gifttonature.co.uk/lizardhelp.htm Anyway, best of luck on your search, I'm gonna try my luck on Portland on friday, if I snap any I'll post them. Cheers, Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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Chris G-O Member Joined: 14 May 2003 No. of posts: 36 View other posts by Chris G-O |
Posted: 22 Sep 2003 I visited the Ventnor population in February 2003 and saw about 40 wall lizards, generally spread about on walls, gardens/cliffs, garage roofs etc in the steep old town of Ventnor. I also heard that the Gift to Nature people had 'rescued' them from a new multistorey car park development and moved them to the Botanic Garden at St Lawrence 2 miles west. Of course, the Ventnor wall lizards are pretty widespread and the car park didn't wipe them out. At the Botanic Garden i noticed a few along a crack in a wall west of the visitor centre against the car park. Unsurprisingly i didn't see any on the new 'wall lizard wall' they've built. It's incredible - a dry stone wall with no vegetation, about 5m long, stand-alone, and with wind whistling right through it! It looks like a demo of how to build a dry stone wall but it certainly isn't wall lizard habitat. The legitimacy of them moving wall lizards could also quite easily be questioned if anyone wanted to do so! Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 22 Sep 2003 Just out of curiosity, was the relocation even legel? Cheers. Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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Matt Harris Senior Member Joined: 03 Jun 2003 No. of posts: 196 View other posts by Matt Harris |
Posted: 24 Sep 2003 Strictly speaking, no, it's not legal. They are listed on WCA 1981 Appendix 4, a list of non-native animals not to be released. Gwent Amphibian and Reptile Group (GARG) |
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Chris G-O Member Joined: 14 May 2003 No. of posts: 36 View other posts by Chris G-O |
Posted: 30 Oct 2003 No, i guess the translocation wasn't legal. It's an alien species and as such can't be released. You can't even legally pick up a marsh frog or an alpine newt and then put it down again in the UK! For that matter, the WCA 1981 and amendments don't make killing of wall lizards illegal. English Nature (Hants & IW team) are aware of the Ventnor to Botanic Gardens move but i doubt they would want to pursue it. I think there were wall lizards already at the Botanic Gardens before the 2002 rescue according to staff there anyway. On a similar subject, someone recently phoned me with an old record of P. sicula from Plymouth from 1940s-60s and i think he recently re-checked them and they were still there. Also, an old guy who visited the HCT office recently said he used to catch and keep wall lizards in Ventnor in the 1930s. They were already common then. Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair |
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Chris G-O Member Joined: 14 May 2003 No. of posts: 36 View other posts by Chris G-O |
Posted: 17 Jan 2004 It's been quite a mild January so far and that suits the wall lizards on Bournemouth cliffs. I hear they were out last weekend, and i saw one green male today (17th Jan 2004). See pictures below. cheers, Chris  Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair |
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Nick D Member Joined: 24 Jul 2004 No. of posts: 4 View other posts by Nick D |
Posted: 24 Jul 2004 Have just been down to Canford Cliffs, near Bournemouth with the family today 24th July 2004 and was amazed when my oldest daughter pointed out a lizard on a nearby wall. On closer inspection I was amazed to discover that it was neither of the two British native species - Common/Sand but Podacris Muralis!! Also went for a walk at St.Catherines Wood (part of the New Forest near Bournemouth) and spotted two common lizards. Anybody know how Wall Lizards have managed to establish themselves at Canford Cliffs? Nick |
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Tony Phelps Forum Specialist Joined: 09 Mar 2003 No. of posts: 575 View other posts by Tony Phelps |
Posted: 25 Jul 2004 Get in touch with Chris Gleed-Owen HCT, he may read your post anyway. Tony |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515 View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 27 Jul 2004 The Wall Lizards were apparently released in late summer 1992. I was asked to go and check the site at the time they were first seen and could only find about 7 juveniles. I checked the site carefully in spring and summer 1993 and found no adults at all and only the same set of individuals that gradually grew and became adult and more colourful and have unfortunately spread, with some human help, to cover the majority of the Poole cliffs to the detriment of the native endangered Sand Lizard. British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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Nick D Member Joined: 24 Jul 2004 No. of posts: 4 View other posts by Nick D |
Posted: 27 Jul 2004 David. I'm intrigued, do the wall lizards harm sand lizards through competition. I'm surprised there are any Sand Lizards at Canford Cliffs - I didn't think the conditions would be suitable.
Nick Nick |
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Nick D Member Joined: 24 Jul 2004 No. of posts: 4 View other posts by Nick D |
Posted: 27 Jul 2004 P.S. The individual wall lizard my daughter and I saw was a juvenile at most a year old. Nick
Nick |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515 View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 27 Jul 2004 I am not sure how the Wall Lizard has caused the decline of the Sand Lizard. The only fact that I know is that the number of sightings of Sand Lizards is now very small and areas that I used to find them are now covered with Wall Lizards. The Wall Lizard seems to be able to make use of all microhabitats on the cliff, climbing on the rockery and zigzag walls, gorse, pine trunks and tree stumps as well as living in holes on large open sand and gravel areas and on the grass above the cliff by the road.The Sand Lizards were only seen in the grassy areas or in the heather and gorse areas and sometimes on top of the wall at the base of the cliff, but I have never seen them climbing. The Wall Lizards can be active every month of the year and lays 3 clutches of eggs per year and seem to become mature in just over 1 year. The Wall Lizards are far more agile and I would expect them to chase juvenile Sand Lizards out of their territory when the two come together. The whole of the Bournemouth & Poole cliffs are good Sand Lizard habitat with plenty of vegetation cover, some of it exotic aliens, but the lizards do not mind some of this. There are plenty of invertebrates for food and south facing open sand for egglaying so now the Holm Oak and Sycamore cover has started to be removed there should have been even more habitat available for them. British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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Nick D Member Joined: 24 Jul 2004 No. of posts: 4 View other posts by Nick D |
Posted: 27 Jul 2004 David Thanks for the info. Let me know if you ever need any help with future surveys - be glad to help
Nick Nick |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181 View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 15 Oct 2004 I emailled Ellin Beltz in the USA following up a search engine hit....here is her reply.
Dear Steve: This country includes only a very limited variety of herpetofauna: 3 anurans, 3 urodellans, 3 saurians and 3 ophidians, but no chelonians or crocodilians as the climate is not conducive to such reptiles.... Twelve wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) were released at Farnham Castle in Surrey, in 1932. Two more followed the next year, and these were rediscovered in 1951 in the garden of a nearby estate. In 1937, 300 were released in the grounds of Paignton Zoo, and these were still in existance in the late 1960s. In 1954, Lord Chaplin released 15 into the garden of his estate near Tornes, Devon; and by 1976, these had been known to have multiplied to around 100. In 1980, two flourishing colonies had been discovered on the Isle of Wight, and from 1957, another colony is still believed to be extant - in Hampton Court, in Middlesex.
.....more fuel to the fire :P Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515 View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 15 Oct 2004 I do not see the relevance of the last post. Frank lived in Torquay and was curator of reptiles and aquarium at Paignton Zoo for a while in the 1950's. He was a pet keeper rather than field worker but know he did try to release various species in the Torquay area. The information reproduced is the same as that from Christopher Lever's book The Naturalized animals of the British Isles 1977. Frank was also a BHS member and took the Journal so would have got the extra piece of information from there about Hampton but it is Hampton Wick not Hampton Court. The paper in British Wildlife by Quayle & Noble is the better more up to date reference. British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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bearde Member Joined: 01 Oct 2004 No. of posts: 2 View other posts by bearde |
Posted: 20 Oct 2004 can any 1 give me a wall lizard care sheet for Podarcis muralis |
- Wall lizards |