IN PICTURES: seven snakes and lizards that could be hiding in your garden
By Sue Wilkinson
Published 28th Feb 2019, 14:03 BST
Updated 6th Apr 2019, 18:09 BST
With spring starting to bloom, Brits have been urged to look out for reptiles that call the UK home – including grass snakes, slow worms, vipers and even sand lizards.
Outdoors experts from GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk have revealed the different snakes and lizards that can be found in UK gardens.
They look like snakes and act like snakes, but slow worms are actually a type of native legless lizard.
Varying in colour from grey to brown to bronze, they can be spotted if you see it blink, because snakes dont have eyelids like lizards do.
Slow worms are significantly less withdrawn than British snake species and can frequently be found in back gardens up and down the UK.
From the venomous European viper and the rare smooth snake to the viviparous lizard and slow worm, herpetophobes might want to look away now.
Distribution of the rare sand lizard is patchy but it can be found near the coast across the country and is legally protected as a threatened species under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
It is the only egg-laying lizard in the UK and can be seen in the summer months, but will shelter underground at night and during the winter.
