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From Australia it is pleasing to hear some habitat is healthy enough in UK to support snakes. I recall being touched by a story from the last century or the previous one of a man who affectionately kept a pet snake warm and snug in his pocket. I like in a tropical urban area with a rainforest yard supporting carpet and tree snakes but sadly no frogs.
Nice to hear from someone in Australia! I've never had the chance to visit but I'd love to get to see the variety of reptiles you have one day. Our snakes tend to keep really out of the way, I've only seen a few in my life, but our frogs are everywhere!
Had big grass snake entangled and seemingly lifeless in netting I had over a pond some years ago, must have been after the fish. I cut it free and put it in a bucket with a lid, intending to take it to a nearby stream but when I lifted the lid it shot out. South Somerset.
We have a huge woodlands near me in the West Midlands called Cannock chase I’ve seen an Adder and it was quite big apparently they’ve been known to bite dogs in the past. I had no clue we had them in this country until I encountered one.
I can assure you, we _do_ have snakes in Ireland.. Why, living just next door is a nest of especially venomous vipers... Sadly though, I'm talking about the sort that still have their legs on the outside who give their crawling cousins a bad name!
Thanks for watching! If you head over to the iNaturalist website you can find recent sightings maps and see that adders have been seen across England, Scotland and Wales, including the North West. That's just voluntary observations people have submitted rather than an accurate distribution map that would likely reveal further populations.
Hi Emily, I saw a typical grass snake in my little English back garden in East Yorkshire on the coast. However, I was really puzzled by it's bright red tongue. Also it didn't emit a warning smell otherwise it had all the markings of a male grass snake. Is a red tongued grass snake safe? Hope you can help. Thank you x
Hmm, this has been an interesting one to think about, and sounds like a great sighting. I've never heard of a red tongue on a grass snake, but that's not to say it isn't possible. Random mutations occur all the time in the wild and you may well have seen a unique mutation in this grass snake. Other possibilities are that it had blood on its tongue or that the light was hitting it in a certain way that made it look red. The only red tongued snake in the UK is the smooth snake, but they are extremely rare and only found in southern England so I highly doubt it was one of those. If it was a grass snake then it should be harmless (in the sense that it has no venom) but unless you're 100% certain of an identification it's always best to be on the safe side and not get too close. As for the warning smell, that's a defense mechanism that wouldn't be used all the time. If the snake didn't feel threatened then there was no reason for it to waste energy producing anything. Great to hear about what you saw and do comment again about any other wildlife sightings or questions you have!
Loads of adders in N Yorkshire all over the moors. Some idiot got himself bitten 3 times in Dalby forest a few years ago, because he picked it up. I used to see adders and grass snakes when I lived in Suffolk. Never seen a smooth snake.
I love snakes and I'm not sure I'd be brave (or maybe stupid) enough to try picking one up. Nasty sounding bite! It's always very exciting spotting a snake in the wild though isn't it, regardless of the species.