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Relocating slow worms

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colinaclarke View Drop Down
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Joined: 31 Oct 2012
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote colinaclarke Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Relocating slow worms
    Posted: 31 Oct 2012 at 8:02pm
I have a large number of slow worms in my garden having taken great care over the years to avoid mowing and strimming them - takes hours but worth it!

I am now about to move and the lady moving in has 10 cats who will primarily occupy the garden. My reading up tells me that one of the main problems for slow worms is the domestic cat.

Thus I am considering whether to attempt to catch as many as I can and transport them with me to my new home where I can ensure they thrive.

Questions:

- do the cats pose a real threat?
- if I try and transport them, could I do more harm than good?
- if transporting is viable, what precautions/habitat etc should I try and create?

I do rather hope you say 'take 'em with you' - I have become extremely fond of them, leaving things around the garden for them to crowd under on warm days. Funnily enough, I have never even picked them up, I just peer at them every so often and enjoy the fact that they are there.

Thanks

CAC
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Nov 2012 at 12:06am
I can understand how you feel about leaving them behind. Mine have all gone into hibernation in the past week, haven't yours? I would think you'd need to act quickly to round them up if you do decide to take them with you.
I would think that if you want to remove them from the garden, rather than taking them with you, then you want to make the garden unfriendly to slow worms by doing things like making it ultra tidy and well mown with no untidy or overgrown places and certainly no compost heaps or bins and no sheets of anything they like to lie under. My immediate neighbours don't have slow worms as their gardens are neat and tidy with no compost heaps, neighbours beyond them have slow worms as they have compost heaps and straggly areas. I think you'll be struggling a bit though now to do anything as it's hibernation time.

Suz
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GemmaJF View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Nov 2012 at 12:32am
I agree with Suzy, it is too late to do anything this year. Even if you could locate the animals which would be difficult there would be no time now for them to find suitable hibernation dens at the new location.

Cats will be a problem, particularly 10 of them! I have reptiles in the garden and there is a noticeable effect from a new neighbour that arrived with 3 cats several years ago. We don't have many slow-worms but the cats use the wildlife garden like a larder, sadly.

If you were to translocate them, you would be best to capture in April/May. At this time the females will be gravid with the young. The young would stand a better chance of forming a new population.

Much depends on how far you were thinking of moving them, what the new environment was like etc. I have to say the 'success' of slow-worm translocation is very debatable, in the past I have been loathed to move them more than half a kilometer or so and have been very selective regarding what I would regard as suitable habitat. It can take an awful long time for the populations to establish after translocation.

In all I would advise the new owner of the slow-worms existence and hope they keep the garden tidy as Suzy suggests to discourage the slow-worms from using the garden so they disperse to a safer area. Sadly though I think 10 cats is likely to impact on all wildlife in the immediate area and would be difficult to mitigate for in any circumstances.

In all if you did go for translocation and habitat creation, look at Suzy's list of what to remove to discourage them and do the opposite! Plenty of long areas of grass, build a hibernation bund out of hardcore and cap with earth in a sunny spot, put in compost bins, leave the garden untidy, that would all help to make a nice new home for them Wink

Of course if you threw in a pond as well... well then perhaps you wouldn't need to translocate anything, you may find if you have some reasonable adjoining habitat that the new garden would soon have reptiles and amphibians visiting it naturally.


Edited by GemmaJF - 01 Nov 2012 at 12:47am
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