British reptiles

Part three the smooth snake.

The smooth snake is Britain's rarest snake, The smooth snake is only found in a few heathlands across Britain. One of the few places to find them is around the wearham forset in Dorset but they can also be found in surrey and Hampshire. They are fully protected by law and there is still very little known about them. A smooth snakes eye is more like a grass snakes than a adders, It has a black pupil with a red stripe around each eye and they also have a dark patch shaped like a coronet on the back of their heads. A smooth snake will have Little's speckles along its body whereas a adder will have a zigzag pattern. The female smooth snake has a smaller tail than the male. The smooth snake is very secretive and very enigmatic and rarely basks in the open, they will hide under tin and large stones, they do this for protection and shelter and also the tin produces heat for the snake to absorb. They are restricted to heathland, And as these are slowly becoming fragmented and the heath is being lost their numbers are falling. The oldest smooth snake to be found in Britain was nineteen years old which i believe is a record. The smooth snakes scales are  completely smooth whereas the grass and the adder snake has a ridge running along their scales. The best time to try and see a smooth snake is just after they has emerged from hibernation in spring. They may then be seen basking in the sunshine around the heather. The smooth snake is smaller than the adder, The female is  about sixty centimetres long with the male being slightly smaller. Their colour varies from grey to brown or even a red brown colour. Individuals have a home territory and will stay within this territory for a long time. Most of their time is spent pushing through the soil and burrowing underground looking for their main prey lizards (although it has been recorded that they have had cannibalistic traits in captivity).Mating takes place in may and the young are born in august or September, Upto fifteen young may be born at a time rupturing a thin membrane, and they are self-sufficient from birth. The young are actually born with darker spots than the adult. The young will eat spiders and insects when they are first born. A smooth snake is not poisonous but may bite if threatened from a predator. Like all snakes the smooth snake will sluff its skin every so often and will be at its most brightest just after this action.