Natrix natrix - Grass Snake

Grass snakes, Britain's largest reptiles, can grow to well over a metre in length. They have a preference for rough land with plenty of long grass, laying their eggs  in June and July, in rotting vegetation such as compost heaps - a source of warmth. The young hatch in autumn.

These snakes are also found beside water, and they are very good swimmers (which is precisely the meaning of the Latin name natrix). For food, they mainly eat amphibians, including toads, frogs and newts; and they can even catch small fishes.

Grass snakes are sometimes killed by people in the mistaken belief that they are adders. Although they hiss menacingly when cornered, these reptiles are neither venomous nor aggressive, and so killing any of them is quite unjustified; indeed to do so is a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

It is very easy to distinguish grass snakes from adders. The background colour of the grass snake is dark green, and its body has vertical black bars and spots running along the sides. In addition, there is usually a prominent yellow collar almost right around the neck. Adders, on the other hand, have a background colour of light grey-brown with black dark zig-zag markings all along the their backs and a V on the top of the head behind the eyes. (Note that all snakes appear duller just before they shed their skin - a process known as sloughing.)

Pictures copyright © 2005 First Nature

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