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Sand Lizard Monitoring Programme |
The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) is the rarest lizard in the UK. Although it is widespread and common in many parts of Europe, it is confined to pockets of heathland and coastal sand dune in southern England, northwest England and north Wales, where sandy substrates and microclimate are favourable. The loss of heathlands and sand dunes during the 20th century caused a great reduction in the range of sand lizards in the UK, and countless populations were lost. To counter these declines, the HCT and its predecessors have led a reintroduction programme spanning the last 40 years, which has brought back sand lizards back to 62 locations in Wales, southwest England and other places where they had been lost. Much of this work has been financed by Natural England and Countryside Council for Wales. The reintroduction programme has proven to be one of the most successful in the world, with a 90% success rate. Together with major efforts to recreate heathland in recent years, it has given the sand lizard a fighting chance of survival in the UK into the long-term future. |
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For almost 20 years, the HCT has led a monitoring programme on numerous sand lizard populations across its UK range. Originally involving only a handful of keen enthusiasts, we now have around 150 people contributing data to the programme. This includes staff of HCT and other conservation organisations, but it also includes many volunteers who give their valuable time freely; hopefully with great reward. We have mapped all known sand lizard populations in the UK on our GIS system (i.e. computer mapping), using MapInfo. We call the population centres ‘foci’, and there are currently 580 of these. The largest concentration of foci is in the Dorset heathlands, but there are also important populations in the Weald and Thames Basin heaths, and on coastal sand dunes systems around southern England, Merseyside and north Wales. The map below shows the distribution of sand lizards in southern Britain. |
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Sand lizards need a vegetation mosaic with a varied physical structure, combining tall and short plants, with dense heather or marram cover as well as moss, lichen and bare patches. On heathland, sand lizard population foci tend to be centred on dry heath areas with exposed sand patches, particularly where there is undulating terrain or south-facing slopes. On sand dunes, they tend to be on marram-dominated dune ridges. Many sand lizard populations are found along coniferous forest rides, edges and glades, existing as remnants of formerly more-exptensive populations. With climate warming in the future, it is possible that sand lizards will start to expand into new habitat types such as grassland, and this is one aspect that we are keeping in mind during our monitoring. Sand lizards are quite hard to spot initially, but once you have the knack, monitoring them is both rewarding and addictive! |
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Participants in the Sand Lizard Monitoring Programme need to be licensed by the appropriate authority (Natural England or Countryside Council for Wales), but they can do this by affiliating to the HCT’s licence. We current accredit around 150 people on our licences, in return for the data they collect. Monitoring visits are generally carried out during the spring from March to May when sand lizards are most active and detectable, but data can be collected in the right weather conditions at any time between March and October. If you live close to a sand lizard population, you may only need to spare an hour or two occasionally, and your data will certainly be useful. We can provide training and maps to aid you, but we encourage you also to look at the Powerpoint training presentations and materials available via the National Reptile Survey tab to the left. If you would like to offer your services, please contact Chris Gleed-Owen. The links below show the distribution of sand lizard populations in more detail for each region. |
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Sand lizard monitoring typically involves a visit of an hour or two, walking through heath or dune habitat during appropriate weather conditions, searching for sand lizards visually. The best way to record sightings is with a hand-held GPS such as a Garmin eTrex (available for £65 from GPS Warehouse), but if you don’t have a GPS you can mark sightings as dots on a map. It is useful to record current weather conditions as well as times and dates. You can also download our standard recording form here. This gives you an idea of the things we record. |
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Whilst we do encourage you count the number of sand lizards (and other reptiles) you see, the most important thing is to confirm the continued presence of sand lizards on-site, ideally evidence of breeding, and in the case of reintroductions, to demonstrate their spread into new areas. Reptiles are notoriously difficult to monitor with numerical (count) data, but we are working towards solutions that will hopefully make it possible for us to calibrate count data from multiple visits. |
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