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Slow worm in Manchester

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Lotte View Drop Down
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    Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 6:43am

Hiya everyone, I've just joined this great forum and made my report to the Herpetofauna site after being brought an injured slow worm

As some familiar names might know I work in a reptile shop and have done for six years, yesterday a regular fishkeeping customer came dashing into the shop and said I needed to help him urgently! He presented me with a cardboard box with a rather lethargic female slow worm in it Being completely unaware that it was a) not a snake and b) a protected species he suggested that I care for it until it was better or something The slow worm had a number of scratches on it's back and had lost a large part of it's tail when it had been caught by his cat in the garden and then brought into the house. It was found in a sub urban area with no open areas of land nearby, he was of course reluctant to take it back to his area which he told me was full to the brim with murderous cats. Although I would have been happier to rerelease her where she came from it did not seem possible in this instance.

Instead I offered her electrolytes and dabbed her wounds with tamodine before taking her to Duttons Pond which is about two minutes from my own house and about ten minutes from her original home. There I took her to the upland meadows past the pond and released her on a large flat rock near one of the coppices there, and she slithered off happy as anything seemingly no worse for her ordeal

That's the first native reptile I have ever encountered in Manchester Lotte***

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herpetologic2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 6:53am

 

And she is pregnant too by th elook of her

 

JC

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Lotte View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lotte Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2005 at 6:58am
Well I suspected she was gravid but didnt want to say incase I looked like a wally
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Iowarth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Aug 2005 at 5:44pm

Well done Lotte - you certainly did the best you could for her and she should survive to have her apparently imminent young.

I am many miles from Manchester but do have friend who sees slowworms (as well as Common Frogs and Toads) in her garden. She is really on the northern periphery of Manchester in the Middletom area though.

Having said this records of Slowworms in the Manchester area seem to be pretty sparse and I am sure your local recorder would like to know. Help, anyone - who is it?

Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote calumma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Aug 2005 at 2:00pm
Chris, should that be Middleton

Being a former Lancashire lad (Greater Manchester was designated after I
was born), I spent many many long days looking for reptiles (especially
slow-worm) under the classic flat stone - all to no avail   

I grew up to the east of Manchester on the edge of Oldham, near Daisy
Nook Country Park if anybody knows it.

The man to talk to with regard ot recording herps in the Manchester area
is David Orchard. The South Lancashire ARG can be found
here.

Ideally any odd records should be entered onto the RAUK recording form,
multiple records can be collated and emailed through in bulk, as Gemma
has posted elsewhere.

Delighted to learn that there really are reptiles in Manchester, sad to say
that my first NWestern slow-worm was seen this year in Cumbria!

Edited by calumma
Lee Brady

Kent Herpetofauna Recorder | Independent Ecological Consultant



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Iowarth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Aug 2005 at 5:35pm

Sorry Lee - this keyboard can't spell !

Thanks for providing Lotte with the contact details

Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lotte Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Aug 2005 at 6:27am

Brilliant information guys thanks a lot  

I already recorded the details in the database here, but was hoping to find some form of local recorder so thanks for that! A friend of mine confirmed that he saw slowworms in this area forty years ago when he was local, perhaps you just have to be extremely lucky, since after years of ferreting around in likely places I've seen no reptiles until now but a fair number of amphibians

Thanks again

Lotte***

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