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Wall lizards |
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FB knowles
Member Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 5 |
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Posted: 15 Jul 2003 at 10:14pm |
Hello, As a keen amateur herpetologist and photographer i am keen to photograph our native herps, i am also very interested in some of the introduced specie too. I have herd that there is a colony of Wall lizards (Podacris muralis)living in Farnham castle, Surrey. Does anybody know the status of this colony.
Fairbrass Knowles, Cobham, Surrey. |
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-LAF
Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 317 |
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Apparently after a bit of palava with some renovation work (and the addition of artifical tunnels so as the lizards can access the interior cavity of the walls) they are still going strong. An estimate from this year was 'a couple of hundred' individuals.
Cheers, Lee. |
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Lee Fairclough
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FB knowles
Member Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 5 |
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Thanks for that Lee. Will have to get down there and see if i can spot any.
Fairbrass Knowles |
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-LAF
Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 317 |
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A few ref for british pops is at:
http://www.havnn.net/oonews.htm I'm affraid I cannot find the article about the castle rennovation that mentioned a population count, it was on a local newspaper site the other week and seems to have dissappeared from the search engines. And I couldn't beleive this, but they're fund raising for the ones at Ventor! http://www.gifttonature.co.uk/lizardhelp.htm Anyway, best of luck on your search, I'm gonna try my luck on Portland on friday, if I snap any I'll post them. Cheers, Lee. |
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Lee Fairclough
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Chris G-O
Member Joined: 14 May 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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I visited the Ventnor population in February 2003 and saw about 40 wall lizards, generally spread about on walls, gardens/cliffs, garage roofs etc in the steep old town of Ventnor. I also heard that the Gift to Nature people had 'rescued' them from a new multistorey car park development and moved them to the Botanic Garden at St Lawrence 2 miles west. Of course, the Ventnor wall lizards are pretty widespread and the car park didn't wipe them out. At the Botanic Garden i noticed a few along a crack in a wall west of the visitor centre against the car park. Unsurprisingly i didn't see any on the new 'wall lizard wall' they've built. It's incredible - a dry stone wall with no vegetation, about 5m long, stand-alone, and with wind whistling right through it! It looks like a demo of how to build a dry stone wall but it certainly isn't wall lizard habitat.
The legitimacy of them moving wall lizards could also quite easily be questioned if anyone wanted to do so! |
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-LAF
Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 317 |
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Just out of curiosity, was the relocation even legel?
Cheers. Lee. |
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Lee Fairclough
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Matt Harris
Senior Member Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 233 |
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Strictly speaking, no, it's not legal. They are listed on WCA 1981 Appendix 4, a list of non-native animals not to be released.
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Chris G-O
Member Joined: 14 May 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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No, i guess the translocation wasn't legal. It's an alien species and as such can't be released. You can't even legally pick up a marsh frog or an alpine newt and then put it down again in the UK! For that matter, the WCA 1981 and amendments don't make killing of wall lizards illegal.
English Nature (Hants & IW team) are aware of the Ventnor to Botanic Gardens move but i doubt they would want to pursue it. I think there were wall lizards already at the Botanic Gardens before the 2002 rescue according to staff there anyway. On a similar subject, someone recently phoned me with an old record of P. sicula from Plymouth from 1940s-60s and i think he recently re-checked them and they were still there. Also, an old guy who visited the HCT office recently said he used to catch and keep wall lizards in Ventnor in the 1930s. They were already common then. |
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Chris Gleed-Owen, Research & Monitoring Officer, The HCT & BHS Research Committee Chair
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Chris G-O
Member Joined: 14 May 2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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It's been quite a mild January so far and that suits the wall lizards on Bournemouth cliffs. I hear they were out last weekend, and i saw one green male today (17th Jan 2004). See pictures below.
cheers, Chris |
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Nick D
Member Joined: 24 Jul 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 4 |
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Have just been down to Canford Cliffs, near Bournemouth with the family today 24th July 2004 and was amazed when my oldest daughter pointed out a lizard on a nearby wall. On closer inspection I was amazed to discover that it was neither of the two British native species - Common/Sand but Podacris Muralis!! Also went for a walk at St.Catherines Wood (part of the New Forest near Bournemouth) and spotted two common lizards. Anybody know how Wall Lizards have managed to establish themselves at Canford Cliffs?
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Nick
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