# Non-native reptiles in the UK



## Mujician (Mar 7, 2007)

I just wondered if anyone has any definitive sightings/stories of reptiles living in the UK. There seems to be lots of talk of corns etc.

The reason I asked was I was on a school with some of my reptiles giving a talk to the Y1/2 class and one of the teachers mentioned her son came home one day in the middle of winter saying he'd seen a giant lizard. Everyone laughed at him. Needless to say some of the family went back out with him to the field (they live on a farm) and there was (what was described to me as) an Iguana. Quite chunky, big dulap under its chin and spines all along its back. As it was winter it was moving very slowly. Im not sure what happened to it, whether it was brought in from the cold or if they lost sight of it. 

What would its chances of survival be in the wild over winter?


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

I imagine a frost would kill it off it hadn't found a way into a heated building, basking wise not sure if the winter temps in the day would be enough to get it very mobile..


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## rum&coke (Apr 19, 2009)

My guess would be there are probably quite a few escaped things nocking about but I doubt they survive for very long I would think the winter and lack of food would pretty much kill them off, And even if they did survive and find others of the same kind I really doubt any eggs would hatch from breeding to start a wild population.


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## wolves121121 (Mar 27, 2008)

some non native reps which are breeding are wall lizards, green lizards and aesculapian snake


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## sean_mac (Feb 22, 2009)

would be orite if there was loads of reptiles wild in the uk if they could survive the weather that is


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## karlh (Jul 5, 2009)

There are a colony of Aesculapian snakes living in North Wales and I heard they live along the Thames in London too :2thumb:


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## xautomaticflowersx (Sep 7, 2009)

Then of course there are the slider turtles in various lakes and ponds UK-wide. They copulate and lay eggs, but accepted opinion is that the eggs won't hatch due to our cool climate. However I read a report somewhere online suggesting that eggs had hatched as there had been several tiny neonates spotted. Though of course they could just be somebody's dumped hatchlings. 

EDIT: Oh and then there's this... http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/wildlife/545376-big-turtle-found-birmingham-lakes.html

Pretty sad about the iguana the OP mentioned though. If it hadn't been rescued the odds aren't much in it's favour.


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## exoticsadmirer (Oct 22, 2009)

there's a couple of snappers been pulled up from lakes and resevoirs like this one 
West Midland Safari Park
second one down on the latest news.


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## Bradley (Aug 26, 2009)

a local aquatics shop near me has a large pond outside and about 20 years ago four ssliders got out when the owner was cleaning the cage (they were his personal pets and he put them outside whilst cleaning the cage) Thay made their way to the pond and i often see them. There are now over 20 sliders in the pond and noone else has put sliders in there and ther are turtles of all sizes so they must be breeding


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## Lord Monty (Jul 1, 2009)

i once wrestled with a burmese python in a national trust park


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## Spuddy (Aug 24, 2009)

sean_mac said:


> would be orite if there was loads of reptiles wild in the uk if they could survive the weather that is


bring on global warming! 

Polar bears dont even like the ice caps anyways haha.


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## eurokeeper (Nov 3, 2009)

Originally Posted by *sean_mac*  
_would be orite if there was loads of reptiles wild in the uk if they could survive the weather that is_


bring on global warming! 

Polar bears dont even like the ice caps anyways haha.


Those two posts are very naive even when said in jest. Non native reptiles and amphibians in the UK are a bad thing. 

It is generally accepted that Wall Lizards in the Dorset area may affect local populations of our native Sand Lizards due to virus transmission and or competition


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

There are numerous alien species now breeding in the Uk, including:

Aesculapian snakes
Corn snakes (alledgedly)
Italian Wall lizards
Yellow bellied toads
African clawed toads
Midwife toads
Marbled newts
Alpine newts
Italian crested newts

There are also numerous ponds infested with red eared terrapins, whether or not they are breeding is another matter.

These species tend to be in fairly isolated populations, for example the Aesculapians in North Wales and along the banks of the Grand Union canal in London (from an escaped pair from London Zoo), Midwife toads in Bedfordshire (although there is also a good population in High Wycombe), and clawed toads on the Isle of Wight.
There is also a population of pool frogs and edible frogs in Sussex, however there was some debate a while back that this was in fact a remnant population of species which were once native to the UK but died out.


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## Omerov1986 (Feb 11, 2009)

ian14 said:


> There are numerous alien species now breeding in the Uk, including:
> 
> Aesculapian snakes
> Corn snakes (alledgedly)
> ...



Can you sort me out any more info on the African clawed breeding in the UK? Very interested : victory:


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## mahender (Apr 28, 2008)




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## Dragon Wolf (Oct 27, 2009)

mahender said:


> image


That's a native species, apparently it's been there since before humans were :lol2:


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## kettykev (May 15, 2009)

I thought the land surrounding the Xenopus pond had collapsed taking the pond with it.


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## Matt Harris (Aug 21, 2007)

kettykev said:


> I thought the land surrounding the Xenopus pond had collapsed taking the pond with it.


There's several ponds in several locations - which one do you mean?


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## snakes1000000 (Jan 18, 2012)

*british herping wiki*

hey check out this website, the British Herping Wiki, it has the most advanced list of all non-native amphibians and reptiles that have bred here, and just how much have bred and where they have bred. It has a list of over 100 species! check it out!:devil:


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## Chris Newman (Apr 23, 2007)

Omerov1986 said:


> Can you sort me out any more info on the African clawed breeding in the UK? Very interested : victory:


My understanding is as off this year the Welsh colonies gave been eliminated, the colony that use to live on the Isle of Wight has not been seen for years and is thought to be extinct.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

snakes1000000 said:


> hey check out this website, the British Herping Wiki, it has the most advanced list of all non-native amphibians and reptiles that have bred here, and just how much have bred and where they have bred. It has a list of over 100 species! check it out!:devil:


With all due respect that site is utter rubbish.Cane Toads breeding in southwest England and Cave Salamanders introduced into caves here :banghead:
Anyone can write on that site without any basis for their accusations.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

colinm said:


> With all due respect that site is utter rubbish.Cane Toads breeding in southwest England and Cave Salamanders introduced into caves here :banghead:
> Anyone can write on that site without any basis for their accusations.


 
I would like to aplogise,I have seen your blog and you are thirteen.

Whilst I admire your enthusiasm,I think that you need to check your facts more clearly before publishing them on the internet..There are a few North American and European species established here but noware as many as you state.If you look up other sites on the computer you will see how few there really are.


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## LiquidOnyx (Aug 23, 2011)

I remember when I was much younger, I was watching some ducks on a pond when a massive turtle appeared, (who was well known in that pond), grabbed one of the ducks and dragged it under the water! 

More recent, we have a lovely colony of wall lizards living in the train station car park down the road. I love watching them in the summer, and some of them are amazingly colourful;


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## Rosyboasplus (Oct 15, 2010)

*Wall lizards & green lizards*

We live near Bournemouth and have two large colonys of Wall Lizards & Green Lizards living and breeding on the cliffs. We have taken still pictures and video of them over the years. We have seen the Wall lizards basking in the sun on new years day and have taken pictures. As for the green lizards we only see them from about March to September.


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## Dz75 (Aug 22, 2011)

A guy I used to work with kept iguanas, he used to bring them into work in the summer and let them bask in the sun.. One of them escaped and was nowehere to be seen, he offered a 1000 pounds reward for the safe return of it..It was about 5- foot long, quite hard to miss..

About 6 - 7 months past and it still hadnt been found, he was pretty depressed..another month or so past and it was found by a farmer who saw it from his tractor but not before it was too late and he ran it over, the iguana lost most of its tail.. It had survived well past the first frosts and even some snow..


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## UKCrestie (Sep 9, 2011)

I read something where when temps drop close to freezing, iguanas in Florida go into a sleep-state and then wake up when temps warm up.
Not sure if they would survive the very coldest of our UK weather but I guess their vital organs go into a reserve - so if they had some sort of insulated cover and could avoid zero temps they could survive?


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## Dz75 (Aug 22, 2011)

Maybe in the warmer parts of the UK, like the Scilly isles and down south, jersey, gurnsey etc they would make through a winter, especially if it wasnt a bad one.. And yeh, shelter will make a lot of difference too.. Although I think its possibble it 'could' surive a winter, it isn't somethign that could or would happen every year..I think any iguana or reptile from that kind of climate would probably die within a year - two years max outside in the UK.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

I dont think that they would survive long over here.Dont forget that whilst Florida does have a few frosty days per year their winters are nowhere so severe as ours.Having been out there at Christmas time whilst you may have a cold night but the daytime temperatures are usually equivalent to a summers day here.The iguanas can then resume their normal business and retreat for the night if necessary.In Britain we have cold nights and cold days throughout the winter and whilst one may survive a short time outside I couldn`t see one surviving from October to March.

If iguanas could survive outdoors here you would expect their range to increase in the States.As far as I am aware they are only found in the southern parts of Florida.


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## snakes1000000 (Jan 18, 2012)

*British Herping Wiki*

Hi, if your looking for the most diverse knowledge, of literally every single reptiles/amphibian that has ever bred in the UK then you should check out the British Herping Wiki. British Herping Wiki This is my website which I started late spring time 2012 with a goal to find out every species that is breeding in the UK and where. I've done hours of research to find them all out and make sure my facts are correct.
Well I think you'll find I've done a good job. We have around 80 species on there. But if you know of any others PLEASE feal free to add a page about it. Any1 can edit, just create an account. And you can use information from wikipedia about the species. So far we haven't gotten much support as I havn't really spead it about as I was not finished, but now that I am I'm hoping to let lots of people know of my website, so please tell as many people about it as you can. Bare in mind I'm only 13. :no1: :bash:


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## snakes1000000 (Jan 18, 2012)

colinm said:


> I would like to aplogise,I have seen your blog and you are thirteen.
> 
> Whilst I admire your enthusiasm,I think that you need to check your facts more clearly before publishing them on the internet..There are a few North American and European species established here but noware as many as you state.If you look up other sites on the computer you will see how few there really are.


 I know because the herping sites only show the ones that have bred allot, or at least enough that you may happen too see one in the UK. All my facts are all backed up with more than one website. And most of those websites are from British herping websites, but they don't list them all on their mane lists of amphibians/reptiles, they mainly mention them in other articals or in documents that they've published from recent surveys. Although it does seem like allot for the majority they've only bred a few times.


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