Fantastic variety of wildlife in the area.

Have uploaded a video of Slow Worms in my garden today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCec5ruJU7c

Brilliant!

Great - never knew they were around here.

In the video, is the 2nd one alive? It looks like the larger one is dragging it via it's head?

I think the reason why we have slow worms in se23 is the phasing of traffic lights at the bottom of Dartmouth Road.

Yes, I think it is. Towards the end of the clip it is definitely moving ahead of the larger animal, rather than being dragged. The jaws around the head is something I don't understand. I am making enquiries - will post again if I find out.

The head grabbing is a part of the Slow worm mating process. Used to see a lot of slow worms when I was a child in the 60's and 70's but their numbers seem to have declined drastically. Excellent news that you have some in your garden.

This post was last modified: 13-05-2016 12:35 PM by Erekose.

Hi Erekose

Yes, I just had the same info from the helpful Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust:

"The male has the female in his mouth and he is leading her to shelter so that they can mate. The females are very rarely hurt in this process and generally go willingly but you might see some females with a bit of scarring on the head every now and again."

Thanks very much Erekose and Devonish, very interesting.

There are slowworms in Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

There are slow worms in my compost heap!

Every time I empty the compost heap, they slither out. Gave me the fright of my life the first time!