Lizards up on the hills.

[Michael Palmer]

and we used to have hours of fun hunting slow worms under rocks and bits of scrap rubbish that people would dump there.

Of course I had to know just what a slow worm was. Cool. I can see the fun. Did you ever have one shed its tail?

 

[Monbees]

Black warty ones

I love slow worms .
Thanks Steve and will common lizard it is, what about the black ones I've seen.??
Thr lizard in the photo didn't seem interested in the bees.

Black warty ones might be female great crested newts, not lizards?

 

[Mabee]

Of course I had to know just what a slow worm was. Cool. I can see the fun. Did you ever have one shed its tail?

I once picked a lizard up in Greece to show my two daughters (about 5 & 7 at the time), not realising they did this. Well I picked it up by the tail only for it to wriggle free and run away leaving it’s still wriggling tail in my hand. Don’t think it scarred them too much but they still remember!

I didn’t realise we had lizards in the UK, not many up here in Scotland.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well I picked it up by the tail only for it to wriggle free and run away leaving it’s still wriggling tail in my hand.

Gerbils do this too.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Did you ever have one shed its tail?

No - we were always mindful of picking them up nearer the head

I didn’t realise we had lizards in the UK,

Remember my grandfather telling me stories (and he died when I was five) of all the lizards sunbathing on the steel sheets in the stackyard of the tinplate works over the railway behind our house back in the 1920's/30's I seldom see them but last year I rescued a tiny one that had fallen off the wall into a bucket of water in the driveway then when I was clearing the ground for the new shed last November I disturbed one that was probably hibernating in the remains of an old stone hedgerow.

 

[user 819]

Lizards are defined as such as having scaly skin otherwise smooth skinned it is a newt.

 

[Mabee]

Gerbils do this too.

I also found this out looking after the school gerbil in summer holidays as a child as it tried to run under some furniture . I love animals and really do try to be kind to them, i’ve just had a few unfortunate experiences with tails!

 

[Wilco]

Of course I had to know just what a slow worm was. Cool. I can see the fun. Did you ever have one shed its tail?

The neighbour's cats did... Poor slow worms.

 

[0bee-1]

Mark its a common lizard ... smaller darker ones are juveniles... give birth to live young. As mentioned the other native UK species is the Sand lizard much larger and an egg layer... needs warm sand for successful hatching. found in the warmer south ... Dorset,Hampshire Surrey possibly reintroduced to Devon and Sussex. Another separate population found on the Sefton coast. males are bright green in the breeding season.