by Cally Ullman-Smith
Here, on the west coast of Scotland we have one of the most misunderstood and mysterious of any species native to the United Kingdom. With its long brown and striped, scaly but smooth body, the slow worm (Anguis fragilis) can easily be misidentified as a snake, hence its Gaelic name nathair-challtainn (hazel snake). However, it is a legless lizard, the only reptile to be found on the Outer Hebrides and a rare species that can tolerate colder temperatures than the vast number of most reptiles.
Abundant to the Scottish Highlands their biology is fascinating. They have a tail that can be severed by internal muscles that act like scissors, a decoy tactic to distract a predator. And bright blue scales that develop and spread on older males, the reason why no one really knows. Their lives and how they live them, however, remain much of a mystery. We know they are hunters of most invertebrates, and that they don’t bask in the same way as other reptiles, preferring to lie underneath a slab of stone in broad sunlight and let themselves warm up with the rock.
There has also been very little research into whether there is a keen difference between island populations and mainland ones. That is where my work will concentrate. Sleat, and especially across Skye, Raasay and Lochalsh containing many suitable habitats for this species could make it prime for finding island populations of this lizard. As our world changes and our environment is put under strain, knowing the effects on our native wildlife has never been more vital. To lose a species that is truly so marvellous would be criminal. We know frighteningly little about this animal’s true distribution and commonality. Knowing where they are is half the battle and establishing, as I hope to do, whether the challenges and their physical morphology are the same or not regardless of being on an island, is key to a fuller picture of how we look after our slow worms.
I have created a Facebook group, Slow Worms Scotland, where all are welcome to post their pictures – whether historical or recent – of slow worms along with the location (and grid reference) of where they were seen, and the date of sighting. These photos will be looked at closely and the details of the animals in them would be studied and compared to others to find any possible distinguishing marks or differences between populations. The locations give us an opportunity to discover if one area has more in abundance than another such as Raasay over Sleat and then we may question why this could be. Knowing which community has found the most slow worms points us in the direction of the lizard’s most preferred environments.
I look forward to working with the community and our club of slow worm spotters to put our slow worm populations on the map.
Find the slow worms! Lorg na nathraichean-calltainn!
Tapadh Leibh