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The British Isles has very few native snakes, mainly because the climate is too chilly for most cold-blooded reptiles. This short piece from London Zoo’s Lifewatch magazine gives details of the three types of snakes that live in the British Isles.
- Adder—Vipera berus
- Grass snake—Natrix natrix helvetica
- Smooth snake—Coronella austriaca
Britain has very few native reptiles—six, in fact: three lizards (the sand and common lizards and the slow-worm) and three snakes, the grass snake, the smooth snake, and the adder. Most of us will never see them as they will slither for cover on feeling the vibrations of our footsteps, but you may be lucky to glimpse one warming itself on a sunny day. Only the adder is venomous, but it is very timid, and bites, although serious, are uncommon.
- Grass snake: England and Wales.
- Smooth snake: Dorset, Hampshire, and Surrey, and possibly a few other sites in southern England.
- Adder: Throughout Britain, especially south-west and north-east England and central Scotland.
- Grass snake: Rough common, woodland, damp areas near rivers and ponds.
- Smooth snake: Heathland.
- Adder: Moors, woodland, marshy meadows.
- Both the smooth snake and adder overpower and kill their prey before eating it—the adder by venom and the smooth snake by constriction. The grass snake, however, swallows its prey alive.
- The grass snake is semi-aquatic and often found near water where it hunts amphibians and fish, as well as small mammals, which are preyed upon by all three species. Smooth snakes also eat lizards which share their heathland habitat.
- The grass snake lays its eggs in piles of vegetation, manure, or compost heaps where they are incubated by the heat resulting from decomposition.
- The smooth snake and adder, however, give birth to live young; the eggs are retained and incubated inside the female until they hatch.
- Snake or slow-worm? If the long thin reptile in your garden has eyelids, it will be a slow-worm, a legless lizard, and not a snake. A snake’s eye is protected by a transparent scale called a “spectacle”, which means that it never blinks!
All three species are increasingly vulnerable to habitat loss, caused by farming, forestry, housing developments, and are becoming harder to find. This is particularly true of the smooth snake which is now very rare in Britain and confined to a few sites of heathland in southern England.
- Size:
- Adder 60 cm
- Grass snake 70-100 cm
- Smooth snake 55 cm
- No. of eggs:
- 2-6 (smooth and adder)
- about 10 (grass)
- Longevity:
- approx. 15-20 years
The Reptile House keeps all three species, but, as Britain’s rarest reptile, the smooth snake only is part of a captive breeding programme, funded by English Nature. Two males, rescued from a construction site, were the founders of the zoo population and have since been joined by some wild-caught females. These have now bred successfully.
Source: Robinson, Claire. “Animal Focus”. Lifewatch magazine. Zoological Society of London [http://www.weboflife.co.uk]. Autumn 1997.
Appears in
Snake (reptile); Reptile; United Kingdom
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