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Survivors

Discussion

13 replies
Posted by John Robinson on April 6, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Survivors
Juvenile Slow worms
Sorry, more a story than a photograph, but interesting I thought.
The last time I saw these they had not long been born and it was in late September last year. They were under sheet number 5 in one of my monitoring sites. This is the only sheet that has an ants nest under it and the young slow worms don't see the slightest bit bothered by them and in fact lay in the ant tunnels and go in and out of them.
However they appeared again yesterday in exactly the same place as last year and the same number (9 in all). You can see how small they are.
It seems incredible that they got through last winter, and we live in a frost pocket at that. Good luck to them I say !
JR
Posted by Karen Summers on April 6, 2010 at 4:41 PM
very interesting John never seen those before they are so tiny putting the coin there is a great idea
Posted by Maggie Campbell on April 6, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Well captured. I have never seen slow worms before either (but that could all change shortly). The coin definitely gives a good sense of size. You have captured the ants quite well too. :smile:
Posted by John Robinson on April 6, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Hi Karen
Yes thanks. All I had was that and a fiver !!
That would have looked a bit odd. :biggrin:
Cheers
JR
Posted by John MacTavish on April 6, 2010 at 4:56 PM
Amazing how they survive. Their camouflage isn't the best either. :toast:
Posted by Ian Macdermott on April 6, 2010 at 5:50 PM
Nice one John :smile:
Posted by Dave Bartlett on April 6, 2010 at 5:55 PM
Interesting John - and well worth putting in something to scale them by.
Posted by Chris O'Reilly on April 6, 2010 at 7:07 PM
Nice record shot John.

Cheers,
Chris
Posted by Brett Lewis on April 6, 2010 at 7:19 PM
Nice record shot John and I too have seen some young from last year, in fact they were the first out from my records this year. In addition, they have small boney plates covering their bodies called 'osteoderms', which helps protect them from the ant invasions and so they can live quite happily as you describe using their tunnels for thermoregulation among other things.

Kind regards,

Brett :toast:
Posted by Austin Thomas on April 7, 2010 at 4:15 AM
An interesting story John,

Cheers

Austin
Posted by David Sewell on April 7, 2010 at 5:20 AM
Nice to see some slow-worms posted. They seem to get along quite well with ants as I often find them sharing refugia, even when the slow-worms are adults. The 2p piece was a good idea to emphasise the small size of these.

David
Posted by Marcus Conway on April 7, 2010 at 6:17 AM
Beautiful creatures. Great story to John :toast:
Posted by David Taylor on April 7, 2010 at 10:01 AM
Was that one of the old white fivers, John? :biggrin: :wink: Good story to go with the excellent image.

:toast: :toast: :jump:
Posted by John Chapman on April 7, 2010 at 2:28 PM
Hi John, great to get the comparison. :toast: