RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by Rob_H:

 Hi,

  Great forum by the way. I have a question, how would I go about importing captive bred sand lizards into the country to be kept as pets? There are several breeders of the L.a.agilis subspeceis located in Holland and Germany, and yet there are absolutely none in England! Since it is legal to keep captive bred sand lizards (of the second fillial generation), and I am an absolute fan of lacertids, any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you and keep up the good work with the forum!

Rob

Thanks for replying so quickly Tony, but I'm afraid I don't understand you. So is it better to keep alien species with the chances that they will escape and possibly survive, than our native species?

  Lacerta agilis agilis is the subspecies found in the uk I believe, if so then how would that be a problem? surely if anything that would be beneficial?

Very sorry if there is something I have missed here; is this a conservation worry?

Thank you very much for your reply, but please expand in case I make a mistake!

Of course, thank you. I just realised this after posting my reply. This after all is what has happened to many 'endemic' subspecies/races of animals across the world.

 I was never thinking of actually releasing them (the point did interest me though). I am just fascinated with them, and would like the privelege of monitoring their behaviour in captivity without jepardising the great efforts in this country already going towards preserving our native races. They seem to be one of the few lacertids that can become fully acclimatised to captivity (i.e. not running whenever one enters the room). Back to my original question though, are you aware of any certificate that would be required to keep the European races in captivity?

Just a point of interest though, at which point do the problems with inbreeding outweigh those of preserving isolated groups? Especially since these groups must be getting smaller as more habitat is destroyed. Surely the segregation is purely a result of human interference, and that sand lizards at one point were more genetically uniform? With captive reptiles that are bred for colour varieties, there already seem to be problems starting such as poor eyesight at early ages, especially in leopard geckos.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, I wouldn't dream of releasing any European agilis into Britain, just like I am strongly against the relocation of wall lizards in Britain.

Thanks again,

Rob

Sorry this is late, but my experience would definitely add to the role of pheasants as herp predators, in this case slow worms. We have about 2 acres of land set over to the slow worms, other herps and mammals etc we have always had. Due to increased farming, this has become almost completely cut off from surrounding favourable habitat; indeed the closest woodland is close to 2 miles away. Pheasants are now coming and going through this area (often no more than six at a time) following the hedgerows due to the local farmer recently setting up a shoot. Result is that I haven't found any slow worms for the past 2 years at least. This is quite dramatic as you only had to pick a piece of corrugated iron up to find dozens of slow worms underneath. Strange coincidence as its the first year we haven't had any.

  Just thought I would add my bit, but the Game Conservancy will be doing something, what with all the pressure on shooting as it is (especially when one realizes that no farmland would be put over to woodland anyway if gamekeeping was to stop; larger environmental impact??)

Best Wishes,

Rob