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What our animals are doing this month

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Written by Eve Goddard, Transforming Lives Trainee

Gills in, venture out!

Credit: Gareth Ward

As August hits, our newt larvae, which have been aquatic until now, absorb their gills and head out onto land to begin the next stage of life as an eft or ‘newtlet’.

Their diet will change from chydorids, daphniids and cyclopoid copepods (that’s water fleas and tiny crustaceans to you and me!) to terrestrial invertebrates such as worms and slugs.

They will take shelter under warm, damp logs, stones and paving slabs.

The weather will play a big part in their success at this stage. If it has been too hot and seasonal ponds have dried early, larvae may not have developed enough to leave the ponds and will perish.

However, the annual drying of seasonal ponds provides an advantage for our newt friends long term, as whilst adults can remain on land, aquatic predators such as fish will be predated and ducks will move on. 

 

Hop into Summer!

August falls into the period when froglets and toadlets will absorb their tails and leave the pond for the first time to reach dry land. They will often leave en masse as there’s safety in numbers!

The young will be around 1cm long and will shelter around ponds and damp areas trying to keep cool in the summer heat.  Being largely nocturnal, they will be active at night and avoid daytime temperatures. They feed on small flies, insects and worms.

 

Reptile Egg-stravaganza!

August is the time when UK reptiles begin to be born. 

Grass snakes begin to hatch from their eggs. The eggs will have been laid in rotting vegetation where neonates (hatchlings) can keep warm before they are ready to explore. Neonates are adept swimmers and will feed on small fish and amphibians.

Common lizards incubate their eggs internally (known as ‘ovoviviparity’) and will now give birth to up to 11 young. The young can be predated by birds and domestic cats. Their secret defence is shedding their still-moving tail in the case of an attack.

Juvenile common lizards love the August sunshine and will be found in open dry, sunny spaces with dense cover nearby.

Credit: Josefine Stenudd

What our animals are doing this month

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Written by Charles Bonnett, Transforming Lives Trainee

Summer is Coming!

Summer is arriving! As June has the greatest number of daylight hours during the year and is often one of the warmer months, this can be an enticing time for reptiles.

Reptiles are ectothermic (cold-blooded), and so they rely primarily on external sources of heat to regulate and maintain their body temperatures. Rocks and stones absorb heat from the sun, on which reptiles can bask to control their body temperature. Rotting vegetation is also an attractive proposition, as the associated decomposition process produces much-desired heat as a by-product. Prolific vegetation growth accompanying early summer attracts a wealth of insects and small mammals, and hence prospective prey. June, therefore, represents a potentially fruitful period for our reptiles.

Some reptiles have also begun laying their eggs or incubating their young internally during this period,

supported by the summer’s warmth. Reptiles employ one of three primary modes of reproduction: Oviparity, viviparity, and ovoviviparity. Oviparous reptiles, such as grass snakes and sand lizards, lay eggs containing all the necessary nutrients for embryo development. Viviparous reptiles, represented in the UK by common lizards, incubate embryos internally within their bodies; these embryos derive nutrients and oxygen from the parent. Ovoviviparity combines characteristics of both, where embryos develop in eggs that are incubated within the body of the parent until they hatch internally, after which a live juvenile is born. Slow worms, adders and smooth snakes are all ovoviviparous.

Grass Snake eggs (Josefine Stenudd)

As you bask in the summer sun, you may also catch a glimpse of a reptile! Don’t forget to record any sightings on our free Dragon Finder App!

Preparing for Spring

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Written by Ellia Cobb, Transforming Lives Trainee. 

It’s almost springtime again! Reptiles and amphibians will be getting ready to come out of their brumation and begin their breeding season, so what can you do to help them? If you have a wildlife pond at home it is important to finish up any pond maintenance you might want to do before the weather starts to warm up. Disturbing breeding and egg-laying amphibians can be very harmful, so ensuring good pond maintenance is essential.

Preparing your wildlife pond for spring is a simple task as they don’t require much work. Cutting back reed and grass from the pond if it is too overgrown to allow more sunlight in can hugely benefit the pond, but remember to leave enough for the breeding amphibians! Another thing you can do is remove leaf litter and sediment build up from the pond to prevent a decrease in the water quality, but this should be done before spring. Anything that is removed should be left by the pond for a few days just in case any wildlife remains inside of it, this gives them time to make their way back to the water (please see our Just Add Water guide for further tips). 

Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators.

The changing weather can be quite confusing for amphibians so it isn’t uncommon for them to start breeding earlier than expected, so don’t be alarmed if you spot any spawn or eggs quite early on. You do not need to move or disturb them. Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators, so providing native pond plants and safe places for them to hide before spring starts is the best idea.

As for reptiles bramble, compost heaps, log piles, gorse and wooded areas are all places they may choose to breed in. This means that any garden maintenance shouldn’t be done during this time to prevent disturbance and endangerment.

You can find further information on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly in our Idea Zone. 

 

Reptiles

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Written by Jade Walton, Transforming Lives Trainee

In the UK, there are three resident snake species, the grass snake, the smooth snake, and the adder. Each species has a characteristic that makes it unique. The adder is our only venomous species, the smooth snake our only constrictor, and the grass snake is (rather surprisingly) the only one to lay eggs. 

It is a common misconception that all reptiles reproduce by laying eggs, but besides the grass snake, the only other UK resident egg-laying reptile is the sand lizard. In our four other species, the females incubate their eggs internally, then ‘give birth’ to their young. This internal incubation gets rid of the need for nest making and laying on the eggs to keep them warm, which is particularly helpful given the unpredictable weather in the UK. 

The need to keep eggs warm is a major factor in grass snakes being absent from Scotland since they rely on warmer temperatures for incubation. The best place for grass snakes to lay their eggs is in piles of rotting vegetation, since the process of rotting creates heat. It is for this reason, grass snakes are often found in compost heaps. 

By the end of summer, the eggs will have hatched to reveal juvenile snakes that look exactly like their adult counterparts, except for being only a tenth of their length. 

The best way you can help your local grass snake population would be to have a compost heap in your garden for them to lay their eggs, or a wildlife pond in which they can hunt. 

You can find lots of tips on how to help grass snakes, as well as our other reptile and amphibian species here.

The Life Cycle of a Newt

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Written by Ellia Cobb, Transforming a Lives Trainee

During early spring, when the weather starts to warm up male newts display a courtship dance to the females where he will fan, whip, and wave his tail to attract the female. If he is successful, the female will allow him to fertilize her eggs and begin laying them. Each egg is laid individually on the underside of a leaf on the surface of a pond, the leaf is then folded over the egg to protect it. The eggs take 2-3 weeks to fully develop and hatch into larvae.

Great crested newt egg folded inside a leaf

The newt larvae will stay in the pond until they have developed and undergone metamorphosis, during which the larvae will develop legs and lungs which allow them to breathe and live on land. Before this stage the larvae have feathered external gills like those of an axolotl which are then absorbed during metamorphosis. Once this is complete, they will leave the water to live terrestrially. At this stage they are juveniles.

On land, juveniles will hunt for insects, worms and slugs and spend most of their time hidden in warm, damp places (underneath logs, rocks, and scrub) during the summer. From October the newts will brumate (taking advantage of warmer winter days to forage), they don’t reach sexual maturity until 2-4 years old and can live a few more years once matured.

Once the newts are mature and the weather starts to warm up again, during early spring, the newts will take to the pond in search of a mate to then continue the cycle all over again. 

What our animals are doing this month…

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September is an exciting month for sand lizards. Females laid their eggs in May and June which they buried in the warm sand. These eggs have been incubating throughout the summer, and now they are ready to hatch!

Young sand lizards do not receive parental care, but they can be spotted hunting for invertebrates in pairs or small groups of fellow juveniles. They will feed up as much as possible during September and October before hibernating. Unfortunately the tiny juveniles can be vulnerable to predation from adult male sand lizards as well as a number of other predators including birds, mammals and reptiles.

Females will sometimes lay a second clutch later in the summer, and given the rate of global warming, we may well see this behaviour increase. Individuals that hatch later in the year may also hibernate later; this is because they need to spend as much time feeding as possible before hibernating to improve their chances of surviving their first winter.

Remember to record any reptile, amphibian or egg sightings to our FREE Dragon Finder App. 

As the name suggests, sand lizards occupy sandy heathland habitats where females bury their eggs in sand to keep them warm. Look out for juvenile sand lizards emerging throughout September!