RAUK - Archived Forum - what happens if you...

It is a great pity James, in my opinion, that in this country we now have a don't touch mentality for anything in the natural world. Many people on this forum will have got interested by collecting frog spawn and watching it grow into froglets or picking up slow worms and grass snakes and feeling them slithering across their arms.

As you know slow worms and lizards will shed their tails as an escape strategy to distract the enemy, but gentle handling by a human is unlikely to upset them enough to do this. Grass snakes more readily react to handling by covering your hands in a strong smell. Being bitten by a grass snake might be troublesome if the bite became infected from the grass snake and this might result in painful swelling. A lizard would have a job to get its little mouth to bite a human I would have thought.

If you're not used to handling wriggling reps then perhaps best to be with someone experienced who can hand the creature to you gently. You don't want to drop it.

My experience of handling reptiles is still fairly limited, but here are some observations:

This is what a Smooth Snake bite did, i.e. hardly broke the skin on someone's finger, when it didn't like being handled (photo was taken on one of Tony(Amarta)'s field workshops in Hartland.

I found that a Grass Snakes's defensive spray (more of a paste than a liquid when I experienced it) was not the worst smell in the world but it took me thirty handwashes or so to get rid of.

As for Slow Worms, I've found they can wriggle surprisingly vigourously when picked-up in the field - not at all in keeping with their "Slow" name. 

I've not felt inclined to try to pick up Common Lizards in the field - of my local population those that aren't too swift to catch often seem to have ticks - which I think would be more of a hazard to the handler (with the risk of lymes disease) than a bite from the lizard itself. 

More generally I agree with Suzi on the modern "don't touch" trend: I think it is a good thing to encourage some handling of wild animals as a way of people getting to know and value them, which ultimately benefits both the person and wildlife conservation.

Peter

I've always been a bit surprised that some herpers feel the need to handle reptiles regularly. Fair enough if you're taking measurements or relocating etc then it needs to be done but otherwise it's surely an uneccessary stress on the animal. Presumably not a huge stress but a stress none the less. Just my opinion but I can proudly say I've seen thousands of reptiles of all British species and have never handled or even touched a single one.

Well done dave for not giving in to the urge that most people get when 'hunting' for reptiles.

I personally catch far less snakes than I see so really I am not over concerned with the apparent stress which may be caused by regular handling - The mere presence of a human being provide enough stress for snakes especially as they are fleeting off into the undergrowth - there has to be an amount of stress for the animal to take evasive action from a predator -

So really catching animals for the most part does more good than harm for the animals and for humans who get to experience these animals at close hand

Here is a picture of a rather nice adult female grass snake who paid a visit to a reptile walk which was in Surrey - the animal was captured in Kent as part of a mitigation project. I brought her to the Surrey event and then it was released back where she came from - those dozen people on this walk went away with a memorable experience seeing such a lovely animal - she didnt even skunked them handlers - which is always a good thing.

Jon

PS you can see the smile on this guys face on how impressive the snake was to him magic

Also the snake was as long as some of the children were tall

snake measured 109cm the youngest girl was 114cm tall!

I would agree with posters here that there is a balance to be struck between picking up every reptile you see and leaving well alone. Many people here handle them as part of their work and if that leads to them having better chances of survival then good.

How many people do you know who shudder at the mention of snakes? Slimy, horrible things they call them. Have they ever touched one? If you don't let people touch them and realise how beautiful they are I think it's a shame. I don't think you can dispute that handling must cause some stress but we'll never know how much. I don't pick up lizards nowadays but I often have to pick up and move slow worms that are removed by accident from the compost bin when I take out compost. I have never had one shed its tail nor, in the past, a lizard shed either. Yet on the heaths many of the lizards have no tails and the same goes for slow worms. So I guess there's plenty of scary things happening to them there.

Moderation in all things?

Grass snakes, larger ones usually thrash like mad at first whilst covering  you in smelly stuff. (Best keep them at arms length until they have finished). Allow them to curl around your hand whilst gripping them and they will soon calm down. I've yet to be bitten by a grass snake though older females are more likely to bite apparently. The only time I've come in contact with a grass snakes teeth was whilst carrying one that was playing dead to my field bag. The tiny pin pricks did bleed quite a bit but it wasn't painful. more itchy.

Slow-worms - 99% of tail sheds are caused by trying to capture the animal by the tail. If you grasp it mid body and handle gently there should be no problem. The exception is when they are well warmed up in which case they can thrash wildly - best not handle them if your not sure of techniques in hot weather.

Common lizards will also tail shed if not handled carefully. They can and do bite, but it is painless and doesn't break the skin.

I don't actually believe it is a bad thing for those interested in our native herps to handle the animals sometimes. Most stress would occur during attempts to collect data such as SV length if the handler was inexperienced i.e when some form of restraint is required - this is where really one should spend some time with experienced workers.

Occasionally capturing and free handling the harmless native reptiles for a closer look in my mind really is not a problem, though I only generally capture reptiles during translocation works these days and occasionally for photography/ID work at survey sites.

Suzi you posted whilst I was typing, I think you summed it up perfectly!

here's a picture of two of my kids from porthmadog last summer. from the looks on their faces i think they enjoyed their first encounter with slowworms. they were supervised at all times and were very gentle. and, of course, the slowworms were put back exactly where they were found (much to the disappointment of the children who wanted to take them home).

we are a family of vegetarians and wouldn't want to cause any animal undue distress or harm. however, i feel that through engaging with animals in a tactile way, the children will develop a greater affinity and respect for wildlife in the long run.

tim

I was six years old when my Farther found a smooth newt in the garden. I still remember it clearly today, this chance event had more than a little influence on my life!  Being fascinated by this one creature led to reading books, wanting to see them in the wild and a life long interest in our native herpetofauna. By the looks of their faces Tim, you may have created a couple of tomorrows herpetologists there.

gemma

i am trying subtly to steer them in that general direction. doing ok with daughter who wants to be a zoo keeper but failing miserably with two sons...the one in the pictute wants to pick rubbish up off the streets so he gets to use a robot arm and the other one (not in the picture as he was too young to handle the slowworms) wants to be a cyberman!

tim

Tony I was hoping you'd post as you've known so many snakes over a lot of years and they're still going strong.

Tim that is a delightful picture of your kids. I have one of my son at Studland when he was about 3 (1980) being shown a grass snake and he absolutely loved it (still is one of my main snake-walk accompaniers). I have one of my daughter at about the same age with a slow worm.

What I wish I had a picture of is me and my brother in the 1950s beside a filthy pond in a very industrial part of Bolton - would be called brownfield site now -  with my mother balanced on a rock catching newts for us to look at in a bucket before releasing them. We were pretty certain that we found all three native newt species in the pond but it's a long time ago and now the place is a retail park.