European Grass Snakes

[adamanuran]

I am currently working on an enclosure for a group of Natrix natrix helvetica, I shall keep you all posted and put some pictures on when all is complete.

[Killian]

Sounds fantastic, How do you plan on feeding all the occupants? where do you intened to sourse the original stock? I often thought about keeping some canadian garter snakes outside and offer them some pre prepared "garter grub".

Have a look at the Belfast Zoo reptillay as they used to keep grass snakes in it.

Do keep us updated

[adamanuran]

Well Grass snakes really don't eat that much, and considering i have so many tadpoles i think i should be ok. Also i live 1/3 mile away from a trout hatchery so feeding should not present a problem at all. My stock are coming from a friend of mine who has literally hundreds of them, adders, common lizards, wall lizards and green frogs in his garden.
I think it should be good, we have such a large turnover of people here it will be a brilliant educational resource to help people realise the value of our natives, and also a thrill as many people have never seen a grass snake.

[BenJT]

I have a large (1m) grass snake which had taken up residence next to the UV clarifier in my mom's pond. Unfortunately ants forced it out of this residence but it still frequents my yard. The only things I've ever seen it eat are frogs. I've read they eat about 5-6 frogs a season so a relatively meager diet, although I've also read they will eat bird eggs and hatchlings so keep that in mind when feeding.

They are quite magnificant animals especially when frog hunting, they do this with most of their body submerged but with there head raised out, it looks just like a mini loch ness monster!

Most People are surprized when I tell them the longest native land carnivore is a snake, even english people. It's great that you're using these animals for educational purposes.

[Killian]

That is very interesting indeed, You are very lucky to have seen the grass Snake make a kill considering the feed so irregularly!!

I was going to ask how well they hunt in the water but you have answered my question. What about hunting fish how adept are they at this?

You are lucky to have snakes in your back garden, St. Patrick has made sure I don't have have the privilege ah well I have a corn snake and a royal python in the house to make up for that ;D

I didn't realize Grass snakes get so big!!

[BenJT]

One of my feild guides, "Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe", says the following about their size: "usually 120cm often less but occasionally up to 200cm". Frogs and toads are its main food. The field guide "Reptiles and Amphibians of Surrey" has a picture of a grass snake hunting, I also have some of my own but they were taken a while ago, so I'll have to hunt my hard drive for them. The grass snake has made no attempts of attacking the gold fish in the pond; however, it can swim fully submerged so I would not doubt its abillity to do so.

[adamanuran]

It's really good to see someone interested in the NATURAL history of the species and also to have taken some pics, if you could post them, i would be really keen to see them.

[BenJT]

Well it took a while to find these, they were taken in 2003 and since then they've been moved from comp to comp so they were hard to find.

Here it is chilling



Here's a frog hiding



Here's the snake getting angry at my camera



Here's the snake sneaking up on the frog



on the hunt



I hope you enjoyed those photos, they were fun, but hard to take and the snake constantly got mad at me.

[Killian]

Thanks Ben, those are great photos. is the snake still around?

[adamanuran]

Fantastic, you are really privledged to have such wonders in your backyard!!!

[BenJT]

That snake is still in my back yard, the last siting was early may when it was coiled around the UV clarifyer for that pond. Since then it has left that location and only left sheddings behind. That snake is not the only one in my garden but it happens to be the largest and most outgoing, the rest all seem to be juveniles, and these guys stay in the parts of the yard with more under growth, but this guy just slithers around in the open, probably because at that size there's nothing dangerous other than a human. It is great to have them living in my back yard but I have yet to find any evidence of breeding, I have yet to find a hatchling.

[Killian]

Perhaps if you chage the layout or landscaping of your garden to accomodate breeding? research the life style and breeding habits of them and see if there are any features you could add to encourage breeidng or encourage juveniles to move in.

[BenJT]

Well they seem to not require anything specific for breeding itself, but for egglaying a large compost heap or manure pile is desirable. I have a fairly large compost heap and not much room for a larger one. Because that compostheap is annually burnt I have set up smaller permanent ones.