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We have grass snakes here on the farm in Somerset and occasionally they they cause absolute panic amongst the holiday makers😂 😂

I have seen grass snakes of three to four feet in length on many occasions, nothing unusual. But whilst out moving snakes from a potential building site close to Portsmouth four years ago (as part of a contract to move vulnerable wildlife) I came upon an absolute brute. I had already been told of her existence underneath a plastic sheet by a fellow employee. He does not like snakes much, but will grab and relocate smaller specimens. I reached the plastic sheet and threw it back to see if the snake was underneath. What I saw I could not believe! In fact I did a double take in that I thought, 'That CANNOT be a grass snake', not at that size! She was coiled up and the head was not visible, but when she uncoiled to move off it was clear that she was the largest snake I had ever seen in the wild. She had a girth of about 4-5 inches, and was at least six feet in length! She shot away to the nearby waterway before I could react. I did think afterwards that had I in fact caught her I had nothing sufficiently large to contain her in. She would have been impossible to keep in anything but a large sack, and all I had was a deep plastic container. Try as I might I never saw her again. I just hope she reached safety.

I love that we still have snakes in this country and how often they can be amongst us whilst we are out and we have no idea. Beautiful animals.

Cheers for the video. I've read through the comments and I can't believe how many people have commented on the refuge pronunciation, and how patient you have been to reply to them all! 😄

Adders aren’t so bad, when my husband was younger he caught one and had it round his neck thinking it was a grass snake. The snake took this with no aggression or even any attempt to bite.

I have seen several slow worms, common and sand lizards (which I see in my garden) but only one grass snake (which was in the river - popped his head up to look at us and then swan to the other bank). Really cool animals.

Really great informative video. By accident I disturbed a grass a few days ago while in my small garden - it was trying to eat a fully grown toad alive. The toad was inflating itself to try and stop the snake. I couldn't believe the sanke was a big enough specimen to swallow it but when I had another look the next day it was in almost the same spot and had almost finished swallowing the toad. The toad was at least double the width of the snake's head.

Thanks for these short videos. I've watched a few now and thoroughly been enjoying learning and finding out more about our native (and not) species in the UK.

Great video! I see a lot of Grass snakes when I'm out doing wildlife photography, some the length of a pencil and some very large ones. The biggest had a body as thick as my wrist! Must have been 3ft long at least! See them swimming a lot too. There's one spot on my local reserve and there were 3 basking within inches of each other, 2 small and 1 larger. Lovely things.

What handsome snakes. Thank you for uploading and sharing your day's work with us.

I used to go looking for grass snakes, slow worms and adders growing up in Suffolk. Grass snakes were really common and got big! One year we had a huge one got stuck in my little brother’s paddling pool. It was a good 4 centimetres wide and about 3 to 4 feet long - although it was a long time ago and memory can be funny. It was definitely well over half the width of the paddling pool. Good to see them still doing well.

When we grew up in the 60s and 70s in Berkshire there were grass snakes all over the place. Absolutely beautiful. Our grandparents lived in Clacton and there were adders everywhere. I think the place where we saw all the adders is now a caravan park.

Nice to be with you, you do great ... show the wildlife! I wish you good luck and be careful. A hug

Superb, never seen one. It's on my bucket list, great upload. Thanks!

That was fascinating Liam and Steve. great job.

Wonderfull video about researching Herpetologists! Thanks a lot!

That video of UK snakes was utterly intriguing! And those little newt paedomorphs towards the end almost look like axolotls, to which I'm assuming they are related.

See a lot of them in the gower peninsular in Swansea, love them and adders, you have an interesting way of saying “refuges” though 😂🤔

I always believed that vipers (adders) we’re larger than grass snakes. They’re beautiful and docile, as small boys we’d delight in scaring the girls when we found one.

Nice video. Only seen Grass Snakes one at a nest and sadly it was being predated by a Buzzard. I have had the pleasure of seeing many Adders in the wild.

Always great films and good information

Haven’t seen a newt since I was a kid used to see them all the time but not anymore and maybe they are having problems coz they can’t get out of the swimming pool as it not natural for them. Great video Liam.

can you recommend any locations to go looking for snakes and reptiles that the public can visit. i live in cringleford norwich and was wondering if there were and localish places

Can you do slow worms please? I have loads in my back garden!

Many years ago while flying our hang glider s from bossingtonndown at Minehead. We saw a snake of over three feet in length, I had the markings of a grass snake. We could not capture it and assumed it got so big as it has no predictors up on the Moors

Great and interesting film but I must admit that snakes are not my favourite animal...even though these ones are harmless. Thanks for sharing and have a great week!

Good stuff, guys. Have a great week !!

Great video! How long would the process of shedding take?

If I had to guess as to why the Newts haven't grown into their final adult forms I would go for the pool having high zinc levels, as that can affect some tadpoles/efts development and keep them in their juvenile state for years, or stop them becoming adults permanently.

Those grass snakes are so placid.

Another excellent and very interesting offering. Had to chuckle at the "Ninja-like reflexes and longer-than-average arms" LOL. Hope you're still friends :-) I'd only recently first heard about pedomorph newts, but I do like Steven's use of the term "Peter Pan newts". Great stuff.

I have never heard the word refuge pronounce so strangely and in So Many Ways

You should come down to dorset when I work on a nature reserve. We have loads of grass snakes, adders and apparently one of the highest population of sand lizards.

Awesome as always

Actually Zamensis longissimus is the largest snake in UK. There is a thriving population that breeds on its own.

What an amazing day you had. I'd love to find some grass snakes!

Thought the video was going to be about the UK Government, with the title?. I have never seen a snake in the wild in the UK. Great video Thanks

Here in south Essex there were lots and lots of slow worms living in my compost bins. Close by me there are warnings of adders in one of our country parks and incidentally a dog got bitten by one just a few days ago. When I was a child we had a fish pond in the garden that would occasionally overflow into a depression in the garden, here there was an enormous snake, it was a lovely shade of bluey green. I don't know if it was a variation of a grass snake of a smooth snake. Based on the pictures I have seen it was neither. I haven't seen any snakes in the wild for years.

Grass snakes are quite common around Birmingham and even in the suburbs on wasteland where there are old ditches. You see them along the urban canals too

i used to catch these when i was a kid in the 50s and 60s.they were common in s e essex.

Thankyou for sharing.

Happy memories of catching lizards when l was a kid in the '60,s . Still find slow worms in my garden but have,nt seen a lizard in years . Never seen a grass snake or adder unfortunatly . Sad these lovely reptiles are,nt as common as they used to be in my day . A nice video by the way .

Lovely little snakes. I'm sure though I read an article somewhere saying that a rat snake (4-6 foot fully grown) that has been extinct in Britain is now living in Wales following an escape from a zoo after being imported back in the 1960's.

Nice Video I never knew that place was there and I live close by and the pool I remember swimming in it many years ago

I was walking the South West Coast Path in Cornwall and an adder slithered across in front of me. I recognised it as an adder as I had previously seen adders in the mountains of Spain outside Valencia - I was so happy to have seen it. I then told a couple I soon passed about the adder and they looked at me with fear and seemed unwilling to walk past that particular part of the path. People are unnecessarily frightened of snakes which are beautiful creatures.

Thanks for the video It's important to educate people about snakes which have an important role in our various ecosystems. For me it's rather amusing being used to removing Snouted Cobras and Brown House Snakes from my house and surrounds. As an lay herp, I'm vary careful and prefer not to handle them for fear of hurting them or being envenomated, particularly by Puff Adders or Boomslang. They can spoil one's weekend plans! Our Grass Snake species are very fast and extremely difficult to catch. However interesting to see UK snakes as I've recently started living here.

I used to find grass snakes in Kent UK circa 1950's, mostly they were only between 30 to 40 cm in length. I guess I was in the 7 to 11 yr old age group. Ahh the memories.

Great work gents.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Cool video, you found a lot of snakes! :)

I really think it's because the pool is difficult to get out of fo the newts. Try rigging up something that they can crawl on that bridges between the pool and land and I think they will all leave.

Brilliant. I miss England.

To aide you in your research could you get a clear plastic tube to make measuring more accurate. Like they use on venomous snakes.

The excitement when I read the title of this video. I was expecting a ferocious man eating reptile.

These look much like ringneck snakes in the US. Perfectly harmless and beautiful.

My Aunt lives close to a waterway and, a couple of years ago, had a large grass snake in her garden several times.

Great work liam 👍🏻

Yeah I picked up a grass snake I have also picked up a death adder I love ur work that u do long as u don’t kill them and I don’t think u do so keep up good work

I see them all the time where I work, sometimes I see adders and grass snakes together

A few weeks ago I lifted the cover from my compost heap and was surprised and shocked by the size of the snake underneath. It was about the same diameter as a cucumber and it was about five foot long. The bit that really surprised me was that it did not have any pattern at all and it was just a bright shiny green colour. I assumed that it was a grass snake?

I love grass snakes ! just look at these puppy innocent eyes ! and this head so round and smooth ! Add this to the fact that it's completely harmless (it's best ways to deal with predators include playing dead (and stink), or acting like a viper in order to scare said predator away), and you've got the best legless buddy ever !

I've only seen Grass Snakes a few times. Once I was lifting plastic that had been used to get fruit trees established. There was a big, about 3 foot long, one which I grabbed by the neck to have a look at. It thrashed its body around, covering me with a horrible smelling yellowish fluid. Its main defence. It didn't wash off in puddle water (I was out in the fields) and I had to wait hours to get to soap to get it off. I don't know if they have a special gland or if they just void their digestive tract. Maybe someone here could tell me. I always thought the maximum length was 4 feet and reports of 6 footers were unreliable but a couple of people here say they have seen them.

people just need to realize that snakes are armless! it's lockdown, so I'm gonna tell bad snake jokes!

If the yearlings swab comes back positive for any disease how will you find it again?

Ahahaha I clicked on this expecting to be hearing about old Boris but no ahahah it is actualllyyyy about snakes ahahahah

coming from Australia, I have to say gentleman that that would not be considered a bonefide a snake at all. A legless lizard perhaps?

I had always believed the Adder was longer but it's the Grass-Snake, now I know better 👍

Could the reason why the newts had retained their gills be that there doesn't appear to bea way of climbing out of the pool?

We have cute little snakes living in our suburban Sydney garden, They are delightfully called Red-bellied Black Snakes, are about 1.5 - 2m long, are a shy snake and will generally only deliver a serious bite under severe molestation. Mind you, the bite can be fatal.

LOL I remember when my brother found a grass snake and he let it run free in his bedroom. I went up to look and it was an Adder not a Grass snake. Anyway, just for anyone who may want to know, Adders do bite and they have venom, but it should not kill you. My brother got bit and he felt iffy but he was just fine. We think it was something like 2 and a half feet long, but we never measured it.

great project

Er, have you missed something? The Adder for instance? I think it's a wee bit bigger and could have a hissy fit being in second place!

well done lads I see them while canal fishing A sight of summer

Perhaps those newts have retained their juvenile gills because they were unable to climb out of the pool, so they have adapted/adjusted to an obligatory aquatic existence? If so this is a very interesting example of developmental plasticity.

Superb video

I've only ever seen a slow worm but would love to see a grass snake or An adder

I often see grass-snakes when I sit by the river fishing

A lovely video!

Have come across a large angry Adder in Lancashire,I 💩 myself,didn't know we had them up here! I wont even walk through there now🤣

I have more chance of winning the lottery than finding any snakes where I live. Finding some adders would be amazing if you could do a documentary on them.

Fascinating. When I lived in the suburbs of London, it wasn't that unusual to come across adders, grass snakes hiding in the grass. Unfortunately one adder went through the lawn mower. :-( But I must say the biggest I've seen very near to where I live in Lincolnshire was bl**dy big. Easily the width of a single track road. Its one of those occasions you wish the car dash cam was at least working. All I can recall thinking is do I run it down or let it carry on its way. I decided to just stop and watch it continue to slither across the road and off into the undergrowth. Later I did try finding out what it was but didn't really have much luck. Maybe it escaped from someone house. Just very light in colour. I haven't seen it since.

I forgot we could get snakes in our country. My dad did say a while ago that he remembers finding snakes in a field next to the house he grew up in

I know what a refuge is but what's a refujah ? Great - informative video .

Very nice captures 📹👌😍

How have I got into my 40’s and only ever seen 2 snakes in the uk? I’m no stranger to the wilderness either! The first I saw back around 1992, I was about 20’ away from it and could only see that it was dark in colour but it was huge! About 5’ in length and as thick as a snooker cue (bottom half thick part) it slithered into an outside building never to be seen again. The second in 2017 was definitely an Adder, coiled up in the road. It was dead and had been run over by a car ☹️ probably about 2’ in length and 1/2” diameter.

I walk quite a bit. I've seen adders three times, slow worms 4 times but I don't think I ever saw a grass snake in the last 30 years.

So is there no black adder in the UK? I assumed there was due to the series.

I was bit on my ankle at 2yr old I moved into a new house and grass in the garden was very high my mum jst heard me crying loud and wen she got me she seen 2 puncture bites on my ankle and it started to swell up a lot so she ran to a doctor and he said I had been bitten with a grass snake or sum kind of snake but he assumed was a grass snake as stay in Scotland and are common I can’t remember seeing it or neither have I ever seen a snake anywhere in my life where I stay

Never seen one up here in the northeast of England Adders in Durham there's loads.

centre metres can you tell us what that is in inches please

The frog : NAAHHHH FAM leave me alone I dont wanna be picked up . The snake: Zzzzzzzzzzz

What an interesting video...

If those are the biggest snake then that means an Adder is smaller. So an adder must be tiny when it hatches. Makes me wonder how potent Adder venom is as it can kill a child (I think).

Wonderful

I have seen grass snakes about 3metres in length.

Seen thousands of adders in my time,but only one grass snake trying to take koi from my neighbours garden!And a dead one that I found in the road that had obviously been rolled over by a car!

Iv seen several over 5 foot one i remember was trying to swallow a full sized frog!

Thanks for sharing.. Interesting video. Hope you had a good weekend.. Full View Like 19

How do the adult newts escape the raised pool sides?