Howard Inns, Vice Chair of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation talks about how vital heathland is for the UK's rarest snake

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Watch Howard Inns, Vice Chair of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation talks about how vital heathland is for the UK's rarest snake - Tindle News on Dailymotion

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00:00So across this reserve, heathland is incredibly important for a wide range of species,

00:05but for us at amphibian and reptile conservation there's probably one species that is a real

00:11heathland specialist and is well represented on this reserve and that's the smooth snake.

00:16And this is a smooth snake here, it's our most secretive snake and it often lives deep in the

00:21heather that grows across the heathland habitat and within the reserve we probably have about 10%

00:31of the UK population of this snake. So it just underlines the importance alongside all of the

00:38other fantastic wildlife that you get on the heath of how important this area is for reptile and

00:44amphibians. So it's a cracking looking little snake, this is an adult and to be honest they don't get

00:51much bigger than that and as I say it's a very very secretive snake. The other two snake species,

00:58the grass snake and the adder, are species that you're probably more likely to come across because

01:04this stays deeply hidden in the vegetation. But great to be able to show you what one of the rarest

01:10species of vertebrates that we get on this reserve looks like.

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