The rough guide to reptile mitigation....

 

Edited by sussexecology

Thanks for your message Steve.

I must admit we try and do what we can in regards to the bare minimum. I highlighted this point because it works!

Edited by sussexecology

Getting back to the subject of this thread we need some clear guidance on timing.

I personally believe August/September/October to be excellent months to actually capture reptiles and plenty of data to show it to be so.

However, the situation we want to avoid totally is having to capture neonates if at all possible.

Can I propose that the guidelines should include something along the lines of:

Though capture works may continue through August/September/October a mitigation should not be started at this time of year. It is essential that mitigation start earlier (defined as xxx) to ensure gravid reptiles are removed from the site.

It's my experience that it's generally easy enough to remove the majority of gravid animals early on in a mitigation. But to start much later than mid-August is going to mean a lot more capture effort to remove juveniles from the site a situation that really ought to be avoided. I'm very reluctant to say though that capture works shouldn't be carried out at this time of year as we have data of thousands of animals translocated during these months. The emphasis needs to be on the mitigation starting early enough to remove gravid animals before they 'pop'.

Just to illustrate my thoughts,

In all we need guidelines but they need to be based on good science not opinion. Some will probably be strongly of the school that reptile mitigation should only be carried out April/May/June. Truth is we have data to show that encounters with sub-adult (i.e. previous year cohorts) is actually highest in September/October. I also hate to see destructive searches done in June/July at the height of reptile activity, I've seen far too many gravid animals killed during the works.

The main thing is any guidelines need to be fluid and backed by data. The way we as consultants can ensure the guidelines are based on good science rather than one persons opinion is to provide the data.






Edited by GemmaJF

I'm sure that is the case at SARG Steve.

The ideal situation would be to have all active reptile consultants in an area part of the ARG wouldn't it!

Now there is a thought.

The issue is one of reluctance to involve ARGs in consultancy work. There is unfortunately from many consultants point of view good reason to do just that. Particularly if they have experienced past difficulties with individuals. I'm not actually talking here of any difficulties I've experienced, lets face it I'm in a position where I would only have to pick up the phone and discuss directly with the people involved what was going on and their viewpoint. Rather more a case of  knowing how things have sometimes been conducted in a less than constructive manner in these situations in the past. A  particular shame considering the level of expertise we all know to exist in the SE ARGs from the consultancy base... shooting off rockets aimed at other consultancy groups hasn't as yet solved any of the problems.


Edited by GemmaJF

Sorry to hear about H, hope she is well soon.

Can I ask what refuge material was used?

I don't  use tin at all these days, heavy, sharp edged and I find the window between it being too cold to produce results and too hot is narrow.

We moved over to black onduline a few years back and it gives excellent results for all 4 widespread species. When it comes to slow worms though a roll of cheap ordinary roofing felt cut onsite is really hard to beat, so we use both during mitigations if slow worm are present.

We do the same and strim out vegetation as the capture rate starts to drop away. It also works well for common lizards to concentrate them towards the refugia. At times it has been the only method to 'flush' grass snakes under refugia. Generally I only find adult grass snakes under refugia if they are sloughing, digesting or have just had most of their cover removed from the site.

The issue with timing is two fold. If we can move any gravid animals before they give birth it not only saves us capture effort of delicate juveniles but also ensures the animals are born at the receptor area which I believe gives a much better chance of a new population establishing. I've been in the position of mitigating a large project with multiple areas where our access to one area was delayed. It was small and only had a handful of common lizards present but because those females that were there gave birth it took just as long to remove the juveniles as it had to remove literally hundreds of animals off the other areas earlier in the year! It's certainly a useful lever with a client to point out if the mitigation isn't started at an optimum time it's going to take longer and cost more due to the increased effort of catching neonate animals later in the season.



Edited by GemmaJF