© Herpetological Conservation Trust

As the National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme (NARRS) celebrates the completion of its first year of surveys, the Herpetological Conservation Trust has released its initial report on the year’s results.

Support for the scheme was high, with up to 1,000 volunteers attending training days. Around 150 amphibian and 110 reptile survey reports were submitted, covering a total of 163 officially designated sites, each 1 km square, with most volunteers surveying the same square for both reptiles and amphibians. The HCT report notes that this number approaches the number of sites surveyed annually in the established National Bat Monitoring Program, which has now been running for a decade. The report expresses optimism that, as NARRS develops over the coming years, the number of sites included in annual surveys is likely to increase.

Geographically, the survey covered most of Britain, and included areas that traditionally have little representation in local Amphibian and Reptile Groups in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man (see maps).

The preliminary findings reveal that reptiles were present in 53% of survey squares and amphibians in 75%. The HCT report cautions that these high rates of occupancy may reflect bias in the way sites were surveyed, possibly due to a tendency for surveyors to select squares more likely to hold target species. However, NARRS adopts a standardised protocol for selecting amphibian survey sites within each square, and this is expected to have reduced bias in the amphibian results compared with those from the reptile survey.

© Herpetological Conservation Trust

Measured by occupancy rate, the most widespread species encountered were common frog (found in 56% of sites surveyed for amphibians), palmate newt (30%) and common lizard (27%). Slow worms, common toads and smooth newts were identified from 21% of sites surveyed for reptiles and amphibians respectively. A further 8% of sites yielded newt records that couldn’t reliably be identified to species (smooth or palmate). The rarest species encountered during the survey was the marsh frog (1 record from 150 amphibian surveys), although this exotic is not a NARRS target species. Adders and great crested newts were found in only 8% of squares included in the relevant survey. Smooth snake, sand lizard and natterjack toad were not included in the survey, which focused on widespread species.