Reptiles often get a bad rap. From slithering snakes to hulking crocodiles, they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea at first glance. But these creatures are more than just scaly animals lurking in the shadows. Their role in nature is crucial, and understanding them can help break down the myths that surround them. Join us as we uncover why reptiles are vital to our ecosystems and why the tales told about them are mostly just that—tales.
Dog-Friendly Cornwall has tips on when to avoid walking near basking adders (‘safe hours’ were before 9am and after 7pm), but rising temperatures means times may change. Adder bites need emergency vet care (read more on how to avoid & treat adder bites).
Protecting England’s Reptiles
Sand lizards are over-eaten, due to the shooting industry over-breeding pheasants. Millions of these beautiful birds are over-bred to be shot (most people don’t kill them so they suffer and die slowly). Pheasants are native to Asia, so here they naturally eat sand lizards and baby adders, in excess due to over-breeding.
Sand lizards are also endangered due to their sandy dunes disappearing, so always keep to pathways on dune areas (like the east coast) to avoid stepping on their homes.
If you find a loose snake (more likely a legless grass snake or glow worm), Amphibian & Reptile Conservation has advice and local volunteers).
Reptile welfare experts say housing captive snakes in ”glass jewel boxes’ is not good, as enclosures should be more like large swamps.
Here’s a list of reptiles in England:
- Adder
- Common frog
- Common toad
- Common lizard
- Grass snake
- Slow worm
- Smooth newt
- Great crested newt
- Palmate newt
Also read how to protect our amphibians.
Understanding Reptiles: Biology and Behaviour
There are around 10,000 species of reptiles, including snakes, lizards, turtles, and crocodiles. Each has developed unique features to survive in their environments. Take snakes, for example—they can sense vibrations through the ground, an adaptation perfect for their legless movement.
Lizards, with their regenerating tails, can escape predators efficiently. Turtles are known for their hardy shells, while crocodiles boast powerful jaws and an aquatic lifestyle. It’s fair to say, reptiles are a diverse bunch.
Reptiles are ectothermic, meaning they rely on external heat to regulate body temperature. Thus, thermoregulation is a big part of the reptile lifestyle. You might see a lizard basking in the sun; this is more than sunbathing—it’s critical for their survival.
Reptiles also have varied feeding habits, from the carnivorous diets of snakes to the more herbivorous diets of some tortoises. Another misunderstood aspect is their social interaction. Some reptiles, like certain lizard species, demonstrate social behaviour by living in groups.
Reptiles are both predators and prey within their ecosystems. As predators, they help control the populations of insects and small mammals, thus maintaining ecological balance. For instance, snakes keep rodents in check, which is beneficial for human agriculture. As prey, reptiles provide nourishment for birds and other mammals, contributing to the food web.
Reptiles act as bioindicators, meaning changes in their populations can signal shifts in environmental health. A decline in reptile numbers might suggest problems like pollution, habitat destruction, or climate change effects. By observing reptiles, we get a clearer picture of the health of our ecosystems.
Debunking Common Misconceptions
Many people think of reptiles as inherently dangerous. While some species are venomous, most reptiles pose little to no threat to humans. In reality, reptiles often avoid confrontation. They are more scared of us than we are of them. Statistics show that actual harm from reptiles, especially in controlled environments, is rare.
The term ‘cold-blooded’ can be misleading—reptiles are not doomed to freezing temperatures. They are ectothermic, which refers to the method by which they regulate their body heat using external sources. This adaptation allows them to excel in environments where other animals may struggle.
Despite their toughness, reptiles are vulnerable to threats like habitat destruction, climate change, and illegal wildlife trade. As humans encroach on their habitats, reptiles lose the spaces they need to hunt, mate, and thrive. Climate change further alters their environment, impacting their ability to survive. The illegal trade in reptiles is a pressing issue, often leading to declines in wild populations.
Conservation Efforts and Success Stories
Thankfully, many conservation initiatives are in place to protect these species. For example, India’s Project Crocodile has been instrumental in reviving crocodile populations. Sea turtle conservation efforts worldwide have seen hatchlings safely reach the sea. These initiatives highlight the positive impact humans can have when we unite to conserve our natural world.
Books to Learn More on Reptiles
There are Reptiles Everywhere is a beautifully illustrated guide to creatures that often we don’t see, but are very important to our ecosystems. Some may be in your back yard, but others live in jungles or in the savannah. This book shows young readers where reptiles are found, and wonderful reasons why they exist. The personality and spark from this book should hopefully cure reptile fear!
A Day in the Life of Snakes is a book to educate young readers on what rattlesnakes, vipers and black mambas do all day. Obviously snakes can be pretty scary, but they still form an important part of our ecosystem. In this book (set over 24 hours), a biologist conservationist (and expert on snakes) journeys around the world to follow the lives of these cold-blooded reptiles as they hunt, hide and fight their way through the day.
In the style of a nature documentary, the book tells the story of the world’s venomous snakes and includes information on camouflage and skin shedding. Witness a king cobra defending her eggs from a mongoose, a paradise flying snake soaring through the air to escape a predator and a spider-tailed viper using its tail to catch birds.
Poetry Break: ‘Snake’ by DH Lawrence
Have you ever paused to wonder why a century-old piece of poetry can still speak to today’s readers? D.H. Lawrence, a towering figure in literature, managed to create works that remain alive with meaning. His poetry often centres on nature and animals, capturing something eternal. But why do his animal poems continue to resonate? Let’s explore the magic behind Lawrence’s enduring appeal.
DH Lawrence did not just write controversial novels, check out his poetry which was amazing. Often studied for English Literature in college, DH Lawrence was born in Nottingham and had quite a controversial life, running off with the wife of his professor. However they did stay together until his early death from complications of TB.
While he and his wife lived in Italy, DH Lawrence wrote this poem. Snake is regarded as the favourite-ever poem of many. And as it is now out-of-copyright so long after his death, he surely would be happy that everyone is free to read it. It basically talks of his he meets a venomous snake and is fascinated and honoured by its presence.
In a split second, his ‘English education’ tells him to throw a stick at it – the snake is not injured but convulses and goes back underground. And immediately he is ashamed, and wishes he would come back, for a second chance at meeting one of the lords of life. Read it aloud!
A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough
before me.He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over
the edge of the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second-comer, waiting.He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused
a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels
of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold
are venomous.And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink
at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders,
and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into
that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing
himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed
in an undignified haste,
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.And I thought of the albatross,
And I wished he would come back, my snake.For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.
Lawrence’s poem ‘Baby Tortoise‘ also speaks to empathy for other creatures:
To open your tiny beak-mouth, that looks as if it would never open
Like some iron door:
You draw your head forward, slowly, from your little wimple
And set forward, slow-dragging, on your four-pinned toes,
Rowing slowly forward.
Rather like a baby working its limbs.
Except that you make slow, ageless progress
And a baby makes none.
Traveller,
With your tail tucked a little on one side
Like a gentleman in a long-skirted coat.All life carried on your shoulder,
Invincible fore-runner.
