RAUK - Archived Forum - Tinning in grazed areas

Matt,

You may want to get in contact with Emma Hutchins at Marwell Zoo. They graze a site in N.E.Hants and also have a lot on tins down for the herp monitoring.

You will have to fence off areas for tinning - then the structural part of the vegetation would improve which would allow reptiles to survive.

Adders tend not to live in grazed areas - as they end up like the recent photos posted on the early adder posts

Grazing is a good way of reducing the numbers of reptiles found in particular areas - for instance removing molinia tussocks for heathland restoration has lead to a dramatic drop in adder numbers from 43 to 6 - I suspect also that the invertebrates, lizards and mammals all suffer the same fate - though I suspect that animals will migrate to other more suitable areas - though in some cases this habitat is sparse and leads to collection and killing (in case of adder)

Another technique would to lay dead hedges or brash piles which extend from areas of suitable habitat - bracken/bramble/ rough grass etc - these would then produce possibly reptiles

Regards

JC

Good points Jon,

Although the site to which I am refering has no fencing, other than to keep the public out, as its a closed site. It also has by far the best numbers of reptiles than any site nearby, even though similar habitat is abundant, this may be down to lack of public pressure?

I'm convinced that the grazing issue isn't black & white, and that the intensity levels of grazing is a key factor.

When grazing animal numbers are calculated upon farming guidelines, where you cram as many animals as a determined acreage will support its a sure disaster for reptiles. This site has extremely light grazing, there appears to be no effect whatsoever on reptile numbers, and flora has improved significantly, possibly assisting with improving the food-chain?

There is quantitative assessment going on, but it apperas to be an excellent management compromise.

Yeah I agree light grazing can be very effective - though flora improvements especially on chalk grasslands I have been working on do not often consider the implications of reduce structural diversity on inverts, mammals and reptiles

There are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the effect of grazing - providing dead hedges, log piles and anything which reduces the grazing pressure in certain local areas - but nowadays the managment is all or nothing. An example I can think of was an area in Surrey where an important rough grassland bank was mown - taking out a complete bramble bush - and removing a large amount of cover for emerging adders - why take out the complete bush? why couldnt half do?

I am giving a small talk/workshop on adders to local volunteers at a country park where their ethos is that reptiles are ideal bioindicators of the habitats changes due to management - I cant wait such a breath of fresh air.....

Regards

JC

Matt, in our experience ponies will tramble tins.

We had a number of refugia in a small paddock in Essex where ponies were introduced. Though the refugia were removed as quickly as possible, all the tins were totally trashed. There may be some mileage in using very heavy gauge tin, but I have not deployed refugia where grazing animals have access since this.

Hi all,

Has anyone ever used carpet tiles instead of tins? Are they any good? Is it worth investing in a pack of carpet tiles for such study or is it better to stick to what?

PS. Lifted a large arc of bark today and found two large female slow worms and three very small neo slow worms. Is this very early to record neos?

Rob

Gemma I am on the (unsuccessful) trail of the corrugated black bitumen roofing felt you mention so any chance of some help. Who can I get it from and anchoring methods etc.

Thanks

Hi Suzi

You can get this stuff from B & Q, Homebase or other builders merchants. Personally I find roofing felt better than this stuff - yes it does attract reptiles but in my experience flat roofing felt is just as good if not better.

Though you should use a mixture of different materials such as wooden boards, tin, roofing felt, rubber etc in order to maximise the chances of finding reptiles at different times of the day and within different weather conditions etc fixing down felt etc is easily done with a tent peg or two

Jon

Hi all,

Has anyone ever used carpet tiles instead of tins? Are they any good? Is it worth investing in a pack of carpet tiles for such study or is it better to stick to what?

PS. Lifted a large arc of bark today and found two large female slow worms and three very small neo slow worms. Is this very early to record neos?

Rob

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I'm not sure about carpet tiles, but I have seen sites where roofing felt refugia were places in a cattle grazed area.  The cattle basically ate all the mats and the regular disturbance by the cattle rendered the mats useless.

Re the slow worms, I have been trapping out a site in Surrey and have been seeing young of the year for the past couple of weeks.

Regards

Matt