Baby Snakes

When I was younger I kept a few snakes but other than sloworms and small common lizards I had never seen any native snake species such as the grass snake or adder until I moved to the fens. Over the last couple of years I have seen two grass snakes, both quite large: the first was in long grass close to water and the second was curled up on a pile of fallen trees basking in the sun – I was shocked at its size and how quick it moved. A friend of mine had a wonderful experience last year when several baby snakes appeared in his back garden, the tiny grass snakes were even finding their way into the kitchen underneath the backdoor and he was having to retrieve them and put them back in the garden. 

Reptiles fascinate me and it has always been an ambition to get up close to one of our native snakes and yesterday, while out walking the dogs with my young son I got my chance. Returning to the same area as my previous two sightings we began rolling over logs, it wasn’t long before lifting a rotting section of tree trunk that we discovered a beautiful young snake coiled up on a bed of decaying vegetation. I knew at any moment it would head for cover so I had to make a snap decision whether to try and capturer it or not, I also had to make sure it wasn’t a venomous adder I was about to grab hold instead of a grass snake. I have only ever seen images of adders but I felt confident this was not one. The snake was a very dark olive green colour with a distinctive yellow patch on its back just below its head and amazing blue eyes – it looked too exotic to be a British reptile. I took it first by the tail then held it below the head. It was surprisingly strong, wriggled quite a bit, hissed at me and what I thought at the time, defecated all over my hands - the smell was awful like a dead animal, then it became strangely limp at which point it crossed my mind I may have injured it but it soon perked up again and settled down coiled around my hand, calmly flicking its tongue in and out. 

The creature fascinated my son so I took a few photos of it before returning the snake to where we found it.

I have since done some research online and found out some interesting facts about our reptilian friend. It was indeed a grass snake, we think it was male as the end of its tail was very thin unlike the female grass snake. They are often found near ponds or slow moving rivers, they are great swimmers and live almost entirely on amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts. They aren’t aggressive to humans and have interesting ways defending themselves when being attacked of captured: it will hiss loudly, discharge a foul smelling liquid from the **** glands (yep, got that) and is the only creature in this country to play dead, so that was what the limp lifeless state was all about.

All so I have to mention that due to the disappearance of their natural habitat through land development and landscaped gardening and so on, the grass snake is fast becoming an endangered species and it is a criminal offence to intentionally harm, kill, trade or sell one of these snakes.

I have decided that best thing to do if you are lucky enough to come across one, is not what I did, but the leave the snake alone and let it go about it’s business in peace.