It was a great day, we were able to create some nice hibernacula for the adders! 🐍

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to give it a go! I've noticed that if the lasso disturbs just a little bit of grass, the lizards sometimes chase it like an insect has just landed. Too much movement though and they're off...

Very cool, I imagine my lasso wouldn't do very well even with baby alligators 😅

I've had a few captures, but many more failed attempts so I'm hoping this is a skill I improve over time. For now, the photos show a male common lizard I caught and sampled over the weekend 🦎🤙

My first experience with lizard lassoing was in Peru over 10 years ago, where I captured Amazonian lizards to record their body temperatures. Fast forward to the present day, and I'm trying my luck again!

Here are the viviparous lizard and toad! 🐸🦎

This is attributed to the common lizards inhabiting a different habitat, usually wetter than the smooth snakes like.

Maybe to help our smooth snakes, we should be ensuring they have plenty of lizard prey? 🦎🐍

On the southern England heaths, smooth snakes live with and prey on common lizards, but common lizards didn't appear in the Hungarian snake's diets which instead included other lacertid lizards.

Awesome!