Sarah West

The plight of Sid the slow worm came to my attention on a Sunday afternoon when Jen from Hull City Council Parks Department rang me with his unusual tale. She had been approached by a local family who, when doing a bit of gardening, were surprised to find a slow worm in the bag of compost. Not so unusual – only that this bag of compost had been collected from a garden all the way up in Scotland!

Unlike down in the south of England, slow worms are not widespread up here in the north, and Jen was unaware of any known populations over in East Riding. So she contacted the York OPAL team to see if we could help. Luckily I had heard that slow worms had been recorded on Allerthorpe Common, so rang Natural England’s Senior Reserve Manager, Craig Ralston, to see if he could help.  Craig and his colleague Steve are doing a lot of work for wildlife on the National Nature Reserves in the area, specifically the Lower Derwent Valley and Skipwith Common. They were happy for Sid to be released into a site right next to Allerthorpe, where they will be monitoring reptile populations over the coming years.

Although slow worms look like snakes, they are actually a member of the lizard family, despite having no legs! Like lizards, they can drop their tails as a way of escaping from predators. They are often found in gardens where they eat slugs and other invertebrates. Find out more about British reptiles at the Arc-Trust website

Many thanks to Natural England for all their help with this happy tale. Find out more about what’s on at our regional National Nature Reserves at www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/events/yorkshireandthehumber/default.aspx