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Photo: Barry Kemp |
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UK
Safari Tip:
For help identifying slow-worms checkout the superbly illustrated ID chart
in the Nature Shop called "Reptiles and
Amphibians of Britain and Ireland" - click here
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Latin name: Anguis fragilis
Size: Grows to approximately 50cm in length.
Distribution: Found throughout Scotland, England and Wales. Absent from Northern Ireland.
Months seen: March to October.
Food: Slugs, spiders and beetles.
Habitat: Rough grassland.
Special features: Slow-worm look like snakes, but is in fact they are legless
lizards.
 Slow-worms
have tiny scales which give them a metallic appearance. The males are usually
brown with a copper or pink flush.
The females
and young are a more golden colour, with a dark line running along
the back.
The head is small, and the mouth has backward facing, pointed teeth. The body is
almost the same thickness from head to tail, with the tip of the tail being
quite blunt.
As this photo of a juvenile shows, they can swim too.
During the winter slow-worms hibernate underground.
NOTE: It's a criminal offence to kill or injure any of the UK's native reptiles. Slow-worms are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act
of 1981. It is an offence to kill, harm, injure, sell or trade them in any way.
UK Safari Reptile Section
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