"The gardeners employed at villas close to the metropolis occasionally raise an alarm, and profess to have seen a viper in the shrubberies..." (Jefferies, 1893)

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To protect and conserve the native reptile populations of Greater London.

To save the adder from its imminent extinction in Greater London.

To promote wider awareness of reptile conservation in Greater London.

2.    Introduction

The common lizard Lacerta vivipara, slow-worm Anguis fragilis (a legless lizard) and two snakes, the grass snake Natrix natrix and adder Vipera berus, all occur in Greater London. Whilst the lizards and grass snake are still fairly widespread, adders are exceedingly rare in London, and are found at only a handful of sites.

Being cold-blooded, reptiles need warm sites for basking to raise their body temperature. The open, dry nature of heathlands, and chalk and acid grasslands often provide these basking areas, as well as plenty of cover and food, and are the habitats with which most reptiles are commonly associated. The exception is the grass snake, which has more affinity with wetland habitats.

British reptiles are inactive between mid-October and March, hibernating below ground in disused mammal burrows, inside buried stonework, deep within grass tussocks or among tree roots. On emergence from hibernation in the spring, they can often be seen basking in the open. Slow-worms and common lizards live mostly on invertebrates ­ insects, spiders and small slugs and snails. The two snakes hunt by stealth, preying on amphibians, small mammals and even their smaller reptilian cousins.

People sometimes see adders as a threat, as they are the only venomous snake in Britain. However, bites to humans are extremely uncommon. Our use and abuse of the places where adders occur presents a far greater threat to them than they pose to us.

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