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Springwatch Grass snake release: |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369  View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 09 Jun 2005
I have just seen Simon King from the BBC Spring watch programme release some grass snakes into the Barns Wetland Centre in London. He reported that the young grass snakes were collected from Kent! you know Tony was right these poor reptiles are well travelled. I was aware that the WWT were looking into releasing grass snakes - but why did they have to go to Kent for them? Were you aware of this Lee or Gemma? JC Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
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rhysrkid Senior Member Joined: 14 Nov 2003 No. of posts: 98  View other posts by rhysrkid |
Posted: 10 Jun 2005 I saw this as well. I wonder if the healthy marsh frog population will result in higher than usual population densities as I suspect they do at Heathrow? I know that the slow worm introduction was very successful there and see no reason that the grassies will have any trouble either. I will ask the ecologist how many individuals they are planning on releasing and report here if anyone is interested. Rhys |
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calumma Senior Member Joined: 27 Jun 2003 No. of posts: 351  View other posts by calumma |
Posted: 10 Jun 2005 I was contacted before the release and asked for my views. This is not just a simple relocation programme, but a project that is investigating translocation as a mitigation tool. All of the snakes have been tagged and there will be annual monitoring. A number of snakes will also be radio tracked. Lee Brady Kent Herpetofauna Recorder | Independent Ecological Consultant |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369 View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 17 Jun 2005
Well thats seems to be better then - I just thought hang on this is Simon King telling me that moving grass snakes large distances is a good idea? It will be good to see how far the little critters move as they are a long way from home - the ones on the TV were over 2 years old and so may have already imprinted on their home range Looking forward to the results
JC
Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
- Springwatch Grass snake release |