The Aesculapian snake is the snake that appears on the staff as part of the symbol of medicine, Rod of Aesculapius. Aesculapius was known as the god of medicine due to his amazing skills in healing and medicine in Greek mythology.
Female Grass snakes can get to 6ft long, well they used to before we destroyed most of their habitat. All wildlife needs our help urgently !! The loss of our wildlife in my 62 yr lifetime is nothing short of catastrophic.
In North Devon last summer, I found a huge female basking in my friends cottage garden. The size of her shocked me. She was stunning. It was relaying my encounter to my friend that I found out she had a serious Phobia about snakes. She went white!!! However, the Bat boxes and bird nesting boxes I built and put up for her are regularly occupied. Hedgehogs and toads are about and nest in my home made designs. A pond is coming next... I'm also her carer and spend a lot of time there so the a few of the animals are no longer bothered by my presence.
@@jaywalker3087 nice to hear. I live in South Devon and garden for nature. The loss of bio diversity in the 12 yrs I've lived here is awful as for where I was born Ruislip Middx where I had to return to this weekend well its like somebody has nucked the wildlife ""
A friend of mine has a grass snake as a pet and it escaped. He found it 5 years later at the bottom of his clothes basket. He lives in an old Victorian house and it must of been living off mice that would come into the house because when he found it again it was in good condition and grown a lot bigger.
I vividly recall, as a kid being unable to look anywhere outside without having birds in your field of view. They were on the ground, in the air, in the bushes, in the trees. Everywhere you looked there would be birds. As a challenge, if you searched for a tree without a bird in it, you'd fail. If you were outside at dawn you'd have to shout to make yourself heard over the morning chorus. The skys are now clear. Looking through the undergrowth, you'd be more likely to find a mouse than a bird. Our morning chorus is now just a few pigeons cooing. Very sad. I suspect that it's the destruction of insects that has lead to their demise, because even those seem to be present in much smaller numbers now.
@@KenFullman The never ending population rise in the UK has led to a massive loss of the kind of land that insects, birds etc. require. We had to move to intensive agriculture to try to keep up with the population, the removal of our hedgerows and the spraying of much of the land with chemicals that are designed to disrupt the nervous system. We still only produce about 62% of the food we need, yet we’ve decided to import another 20 million or so people in the near future. As a country we are completely failing to live up the mandatory environmental standards we have signed up to. That is what happens when you elect people who struggle to understand that more people equals less land and resources per person in a small country. It’s something that most small children could understand, so it makes me wonder what is going on in their heads, and what their motivation is.
I live in very rural mid-west Wales, & we have quite healthy populations of adders, grass snakes, slow worms [not snakes, I know], & common lizards. We do our utmost on our smallholding to protect their habitats & to encourage them. ❤❤❤
I often get Slow Worms in my compost bin and have had many in my garden so before we use the strimmer or lawnmower, we check first to make sure none are in harm's way. Slow Worms do a great job of eating slugs and other garden pests. I also have pet snakes and sadly I lost my Boa Constrictor last week to old age. He was 20 years old.
People have no clue as to the wildlife around them. I once watched a woman step over a Copperhead on the trail without a remote clue as to the snake's presence. When I stopped her and pointed it out she almost fainted!
I 've seen Aesculapian Snakes many times in London Zoo, but not in the Reptile House. They were dumped in zoo as a unwanted pet. They are found manly around the Snowden Aviary.
There are whole populations of fish, reptiles, tortoise, turtles and others “released” by owners who can’t handle them any more. Some of them can survive ok, breeding can be a problem.
For the exact same reason, this is why there are a few wild big cats around the country. The government will tell you there are none, but they are indeed there. As for snakes, I have also known of cases where pythons were released into the wild. For example... A few years ago I knew one lass who used to go horse riding across Cannock Chase, up here in Staffordshire. One day she almost fell off her horse in shock, plus the horse was freaking out as it appeared to look like a huge python was draped/hanging over a large overhanging tree-branch that was across and above a footpath. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a recent shed skin. If no python was there then there would've been no skin!
i have known they are there for years-they did not and could not have escaped from the zoo, as they have never kept them. i have links with the reptile section at London zoo, which is how i know(insider info), but i thought there was only one colony in Wales. i am reliably informed, that they are really fond of eating the London rat population, a great reason to love them
@@lesbaty8919 I've seen them just under the 6' length. I remember an excellent scene in the series 'A Passion for Angling' where they happen to capture footage of a grass snake swimming on the pond as they are fishing for carp.
Thanks for the reply, I’ve seen snakes near where I work in the midlands 6ft long 3” diameter and was told they were grass snakes but they do look a lot like these, they like basking on a concrete track and you have to stop and move them and are not fazed at all about being handled
@@lesbaty8919 As a kid my Gran would take me on walks, she always pointed out where the snakes would go to shed their skins - that was on the old Barry Line (redundant train track that used to connect neighbouring villages around the Taffs Well area via the viaduct in its day. In the Morganstown woods (the back of the quarry) there were lots of snakes. They used the ballast aggregate to help with the shed. On the Garth mountain, there were lots of vipers, they were more commonly seen basking on the stones of south facing walls.
So cool, love stuff about non native species in UK and formerly native species returning to UK. I remember when I lived down in Kent in Sandwich, until I was eight or so, there were lots of corn snakes living in the local reserve and near my house in the fields, because there used to be lots of pet shops there and there was one near the house only about a fifteen minute or so walk to it. First snake I ever caught in the wild, found one under a stone on way back from school and held it as it slithered before letting it go, so vibrantly orange and red. They seemed to do really well, and my mum would purposely avoid that reserve because of how many there were. Now the pet shop there has closed and there are houses where the fields were when I came back at the age of 17 in 2021 for a visit, so I'm not sure if the corn snakes still live wild there, but I like to think some of them are still alive and breeding, it's quite warm in summer and dry there and the winters are milder there then they are in other parts of country. There also used to be a few american bullfrogs living wild in south cambridgeshire, had one jump into my garden pond, it was so big it send splashes everywhere and was immensely fat and with those lines bullfrogs have on their body, no warts at all so not a toad and too big for one. Also fire salamanders I know do exist in UK, I've found a few in south cambridgeshire, and I've seen a lot in southern France whenever I've seen family there on family visits growing up, so I know the difference between a great crested newt and fire salamander, the ones I found had the yellow spots all over it's body and their skin was much less lumpy looking.
I have seen Pythons in South Wales … a few years ago one was captured in a Tree at Caldicot Castle when the RSPCA turned up it got away into a Lake nearby, Then the Man from The RSPCA found a Snapping Turtle. People who can’t manage them are letting them go into the wild, Its Unfortunate and Dangerous.
they should not be permitted as pets - there are huge negative impacts to environments when irresponsible people let them go … (not to mention death and injury to people) … A prime example is the situation in Florida, usa - where Burmese pythons and other invasive snakes have taken over there …
@@S.Trades Pythons are restricted in Canada as they're a strictly tropical species (in Southeast Asia really), whereas red-eared sliders are native in Illinois. Common snapping turtles are found in Canada...
I've been going there my whole life, and actually used to fish right next to that Chinese restaurant, and had no clue there are snakes there. I wish I had, I'm sure I would have found one if I'd looked every time I went. Snake hunting is going in my diary for the summer! Thanks for this.
I'd never heard that there Aesculapian snakes in Britain. I've seen plenty of adders over the years, but I've only once seen a grass snake, although I've come across their shed skin a few times. As a kid I often went blackberry and bilberry picking on the Mendip hills where adders were pretty common and in many other places in Wales, the lake district, etc. Once a few friends and I went wild camping one Easter in the Mendips. We found what seemed like a good place in a hollow, but then after putting the tents up spotted an adder. And another. And another and... I counted 12 in all in about a minute. I guessed they'd been hibernating in the hollow over winter and were just waking up...We decided to find another place to camp instead!😄 One of my friends got a job after uni working on the Dorset heaths. Part of his job was doing surveys on the wildlife including all the reptiles as all 3 native species of snake and the 3 species of lizard are there. There was a bad wild fire and sadly this killed a lot of snakes. In order to get an idea of the numbers he had to collect as many dead ones as he could find. Myself and a few other friends had come to stay that weekend in his tiny one bed flat. There wasn't room for all of us on his floor so I slept on the balcony next to a bag full of dead snakes!😴😴😴🐍🐍🐍😁 I've seen loads of hikers nearly step on basking adders in the verge next to a footpath, completely unaware they were there and before I've had a chance to warn them. Like you I'm amazed at how many people fail to notice the wildlife around them. Perhaps I notice more because my dad was a keen birdwacher and amateur naturalist. We did a lot of long walks at the weekend and the holidays and he was always pointing things out, so I got into the habit of looking from a young age. He always carried a pair of binoculars and a couple of field guides on him, one for birds and one for plants in case we came across something interesting. I live in a city center close to a small, partially covered river. I often see herons and even a little egret there. Also lots of urban foxes. And there are rats everywhere, but nobody else seems to notice them and are always surprised when I point them out.😐
Cookie! i havent watched you for a few months (just hadnt seen a video in my feed in a while) the quality is amazing! what a great way to present and show these animals to people online and in real life, Good video and cool snake
There's a pond in Cockfosters on the cat hill rounderbout loaded with terrapins the size of dinner plates. Been there for decades. On warm days they come out and sunbathe.
@@stevejacques9359 true. but finding two if they are not abundant is highly unlikely. introduced species often become very abundant until predators or diseases catch up. but i suppose there could be just two in that area and be incredibly obvious to see.
We have a whole population of smooth snakes in Cornwall Penzance. There are also many adders and grass snakes living in Crackington in North Cornwall very specific areas that I believe you may find possibly also has this type of snake that you are reviewing if anywhere else in the country does, there are very few places like it on the Cornish Coast a massive amount of trees, forests, fields, valleys, and rivers in the area
I had a grass snake and some slow worms for a couple of months when I was a kid but because I didn't know what to feed them my Mum made me release them. My cousin took me out looking for adders on the Isle of Wight and we found one within 10 minutes of leaving her house in a big pile of rubbish. I haven't seen a snake in the UK since. Also I know a gardener that got bit by an adder once.
At Denham and Rickmansworth lakes I’ve seen grass snakes, one baby and a 4 ft adult, beautiful to see in motion. Lately I also spotted a yellow bellied turtle at Ruislip Lido. 🐍🐢
It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally or recklessly: disturb them while they occupy a structure or place used for shelter or protection. obstruct access to a place of shelter or protection
in additon to what dee said "Great crested newts, natterjack toads and all marine turtles are European protected species. They have full protection under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994." All native snakes, amphibians (frogs, toads and newts) and lizards are also protected from disturbance generally and disturbance/loss of habitat
Ascaelatian snake? Never heard of it. Found in Italy? Never seen. Googles it. Me: Ah- it's only in the far south part of Italy, what a shame... *Adds to the checklist "go south to see danger noodles"
I have been around for 60 years and have only ever seen one snake in the UK, an Adder. It was having a maths competition with Diane Abbott .... Just kidding.
I hooked and landed a massive terrapin from a tiny stream in Leicestershire whilst float fishing about 30 years ago. It was completely random - my friend and I landed it and had it in the net and just stared at this monster that was the size of a large dinner plate. I’m not kidding, it was probably the largest terrapin I’ve ever seen. We threw it back in and it swam under a submerged log. If that beast survived the UK winters we used to have, and grew to that size, then I wonder what else is scraping by after being released. Great vid btw - super interesting.
Honestly no lie im from the uk and when i was younger i found a little baby snake no longer than your finger in my room it turned out that are neighbour pet snake had babys and one decided to rock up at mine 😂
Excellent video! I love wildlife and living in London as I do, I will keep my eyes open for these. I'm already subscribed to Clint's reptiles and to My Wild Backyard and Cool Critters who do fascinating work, I subbed to you, because its about time I had a channel closer to home. Thanks!
I've had the occasional adder in my garden I've only seen one twice so far but I rarely go into the garden in summer when they are out due to my hay fever, they are usually just curled up enjoying a sunny spot
Amazing , I once found a snake in a seaside town , a yellow tree python. About 8 ft long laying there on my very old delivery round , , I knew the owner of property , so called him up , we called out RSPCA , immediately because , it must be escaped from somewhere nearby , managed to coax it into a box. , but these snakes I know can be very aggressive , and will strike . So my concern was for children ,going past this property , it happened about , 18 years. Ago , , was massive snake , about 4i inch girth still not a full length , possible .
Wow, no idea why the algorithm decided to feed me this video but I'm glad it did. Years ago I used to live near that area of London. One time I saw a snake stretched out along that exact towpath area (probably doomed to get run over by many bicyclists; in fact it may have already been dead). Nobody believed that what I saw could have actually been a snake... and I'd begun to doubt it myself. I started to think perhaps I'd just been spooked by a discarded rubber toy. But now I know that I was right after all.
I live on the edge of the Quantocks. See a lot of slow worms, grass snakes & lizards. But spring time you’ve got to watch your step on the hills, had a few close calls with Adders!
There’s more than 3 species of snake in uk trouble is they’re all hid inside parliament Thanks for this series mate I always went herping as a kid have only seen 2 wild snakes in the uk. 1 was a retic python that escaped my neighbours
In Dublin, Dublin Zoo is surrounded by a park, people have been know to release snakes in the park, in the hope they find their way into the zoo. Maybe the same happen here?
I could walk 2 miles from my house and find grass snakes of over a metre with little problem. But that wasn’t a grass snake did you actually take any notice of the video?
Great video! Made me homesick though, I lived right by regents canal for years...used to walk to work along there..all sorts of weird & wonderful creatures around there..both human & animal! You can often see cormorants fishing...there are definitely terrapins there, Ive seen a couple, they were huge! Its a beautiful bit of London, and that chinese restaurant boat is fantastic!
I live in Brisbane, Australia - brown snakes, inland taipan and taipan are common sites here, apparently. I've never seen one. I went to school in the Ipswich are still in Southern Queensland and didn't see one there either.
Most unlikely that you'd come across an Inland Taipan anywhere near Brisbane. Eastern Browns, Red-Bellied Blacks, Mulga Snakes (King Browns) and plenty of non-poisonous Pythons are a fair bet though.
Actually if you’re talking the whole of the UK adders are the most common. We don’t get grass snakes in Scotland but we have a decent population of adders which is great.
It's extraordinarily rare, but people have died from adder bites. I recall many decades ago a child was playing in the bracken on Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, and was bitten by an adder and died. This is such a rare occurrence it apparently hasn't happened in more than 20 years, but personally I still wouldn't approach an adder in the wild!
Yes absolutely. Anyone bitten by an adder could potentially drop dead. People can have an allergic reaction to venom and die. The problem is anyone could be allergic to venom and they wouldn’t know until they’ve been envenomated and had a bad reaction
There are a lot of wild animals that live immediately adjacent to zoos. The surrounding areas tend to be free of pollution, safe from humans, and relatively quiet. Here in NC, there’s a massive deer and coyote population that lives in/around the zoo property. Nobody suspects them to have escaped from the zoo. Sometimes it’s just the best spot to find wildlife
@@MrCazjd you know it's been confirmed that it was Gain of Function funded by the US NiH in Wuhan. It's accepted fact, even Fauci admitted to it and should be in Jail for it
Hey great find certainly easier than Wales by the looks of it ! To my knowledge there was originally an animal importer near the canal which is the presumed source of that population not the zoo. Good work !!
Just along the road from where you are there used to be a pet shop that specialised in reptiles and exotic animals named Palmers, it closed about 10/15 years ago (?) perhaps they escaped from there ...
My house backs onto a canal or Klong' as they are called here in Thailand. Over the years the decrease in snakes has been drastic! There were always Cobras and rat snakes about but now? I see some small green snakes and golden tree snakes, copper headed runners but sadly very rarely! Do you think the large water monitor lizards are killing them all? Plenty of them as they are 'protected' Also less rats are seen. Something is happening for sure! Krub.
There USED TO BE Red.or Yellow-eared Slider Terrapins where the Regent's canal fed into the ponds at Camley Street Nature Reserve behind King's Cross/St Pancras stations, but i think they've be extirpated?
Considering we have snakes here in the uk probably the most rare thing to see. I’ve never come across 1 of our native snakes ever and I don’t know anyone who has
I love that you pointed the snake out to people passing by, I'd have been grabbing everyone and getting them to look :) I wonder if they ever eat any of the parakeets...
I have seen the Wallabies in Cannock Chase, Parakeets in Milton Keynes, Sika Deer in Scotland, but what I Really want to Know is WTF took a Mallard Duck in a local Lake from the surface and just Ate it?! 😮 No it was not dabbling and it didn't "Dive"! Something from underneath it grabbed the duck from under the water!! Lake Windermere, Lake District, Cumbria. 2023.(Summer.) Whatever it was simply Grabbed and Ate a Full grown Mallard!!
I also never knew about those , I’m of to south wales on a wild camp next month so ile keep my eyes peeled , did capture a 3 ft grass snake on gower peninsula couple of year ago and a smooth snake in Dorset ringwood on the common , great find as under some galvanised steel , , great vid guys 👍
Brilliant Cookie. What can I say! I wasn’t aware of Asculopian Snakes in the UK. Sadly they remind me of the snakes I saw on the island of Rhodes nearly 30 years ago. They were big black ones some 6+ feet long and had been run over on the roads. Loads of them ☹️
Living by the canal, and walking by this location nearly every day, it never occurred to me that there might be snakes hanging out in the bushes. I have however had a European Dormouse decide to move into my flat and raid the pantry. Animal control wasn't allowed to remove it, as it's a protected species. I can't find any evidence online that they've been spotted in North London, yet I had one climbing my walls at 3 in the morning.
There are lots of animals, scorpions, unusual spiders, beetles, & plants etc that originally arrived in the docklands from all over the world too..the canals took everything we imported all over the country so a lot of london waterways have unusual visitors who made a home here..there are cormorants naturally in our coastal areas but they made their home in London because Chinese workers brought them with them to fish with. Its a really interesting part of London
They could have come over on a canal boat brought over from Europe, canal boats are much cheaper abroad and are often purchased than either cross the channel or are taken out of the water then brought over. I grew up around Salford Quays and there used to be tons of weird and wonderful creatures around the parks and along the canal hedgerows and wetlands in Trafford park in the 60s that came over on ships that docked at Salford Quays.
I can see why they are around the zoo's in London and the Welsh Mountain Zoo. I think the population around Bridgend is slightly more hard to explain though.
There are a lot of snakes around 6ft in London. They are led by a small snake. They mostly hang around in Parliament.
Sunak is almost an anagram of snake!..
Lol that really made me laugh when I read....thanx as I've had a really bad day 👌
😂
Beware of the much more dangerous Venomous snake Foolhardius Starmeris.
Love it😂😂😂
Over here in ireland we have absolutely no snakes. Except for the few in government
Yeah we’ve got lots of the latter sort in the Palace of Westminster too!
I heard some saint got rid of your snakes centuries ago.
@hoibsh21 St Patrick soo they say. But he wasn't around when our government was created. Pity
Nice one matey 😊
😅😅
"Then the child wanted to show me something else" had rolling 😂
😂😂😂😂
The Aesculapian snake is the snake that appears on the staff as part of the symbol of medicine, Rod of Aesculapius. Aesculapius was known as the god of medicine due to his amazing skills in healing and medicine in Greek mythology.
Female Grass snakes can get to 6ft long, well they used to before we destroyed most of their habitat. All wildlife needs our help urgently !! The loss of our wildlife in my 62 yr lifetime is nothing short of catastrophic.
In North Devon last summer, I found a huge female basking in my friends cottage garden.
The size of her shocked me.
She was stunning.
It was relaying my encounter to my friend that I found out she had a serious Phobia about snakes.
She went white!!!
However, the Bat boxes and bird nesting boxes I built and put up for her are regularly occupied.
Hedgehogs and toads are about and nest in my home made designs.
A pond is coming next...
I'm also her carer and spend a lot of time there so the a few of the animals are no longer bothered by my presence.
@@jaywalker3087 nice to hear. I live in South Devon and garden for nature. The loss of bio diversity in the 12 yrs I've lived here is awful as for where I was born Ruislip Middx where I had to return to this weekend well its like somebody has nucked the wildlife ""
A friend of mine has a grass snake as a pet and it escaped. He found it 5 years later at the bottom of his clothes basket.
He lives in an old Victorian house and it must of been living off mice that would come into the house because when he found it again it was in good condition and grown a lot bigger.
I vividly recall, as a kid being unable to look anywhere outside without having birds in your field of view. They were on the ground, in the air, in the bushes, in the trees. Everywhere you looked there would be birds. As a challenge, if you searched for a tree without a bird in it, you'd fail. If you were outside at dawn you'd have to shout to make yourself heard over the morning chorus.
The skys are now clear. Looking through the undergrowth, you'd be more likely to find a mouse than a bird. Our morning chorus is now just a few pigeons cooing. Very sad. I suspect that it's the destruction of insects that has lead to their demise, because even those seem to be present in much smaller numbers now.
@@KenFullman The never ending population rise in the UK has led to a massive loss of the kind of land that insects, birds etc. require. We had to move to intensive agriculture to try to keep up with the population, the removal of our hedgerows and the spraying of much of the land with chemicals that are designed to disrupt the nervous system. We still only produce about 62% of the food we need, yet we’ve decided to import another 20 million or so people in the near future. As a country we are completely failing to live up the mandatory environmental standards we have signed up to. That is what happens when you elect people who struggle to understand that more people equals less land and resources per person in a small country. It’s something that most small children could understand, so it makes me wonder what is going on in their heads, and what their motivation is.
I live in very rural mid-west Wales, & we have quite healthy populations of adders, grass snakes, slow worms [not snakes, I know], & common lizards.
We do our utmost on our smallholding to protect their habitats & to encourage them. ❤❤❤
Gotta love a good legless lizard ♡
I often get Slow Worms in my compost bin and have had many in my garden so before we use the strimmer or lawnmower, we check first to make sure none are in harm's way. Slow Worms do a great job of eating slugs and other garden pests. I also have pet snakes and sadly I lost my Boa Constrictor last week to old age. He was 20 years old.
People have no clue as to the wildlife around them. I once watched a woman step over a Copperhead on the trail without a remote clue as to the snake's presence. When I stopped her and pointed it out she almost fainted!
The houses of parliament appears to be their most natural habitat.
😅😂😅😂😅
Best and truest comment of the day, Wont be too soon before they are gone
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
They will keep trying to sabotage Reform, postal vote scandal already here
I 've seen Aesculapian Snakes many times in London Zoo, but not in the Reptile House. They were dumped in zoo as a unwanted pet. They are found manly around the Snowden Aviary.
Great bit of info. Thank you
London Zoo is where they originated from
There are whole populations of fish, reptiles, tortoise, turtles and others “released” by owners who can’t handle them any more. Some of them can survive ok, breeding can be a problem.
For the exact same reason, this is why there are a few wild big cats around the country. The government will tell you there are none, but they are indeed there.
As for snakes, I have also known of cases where pythons were released into the wild. For example... A few years ago I knew one lass who used to go horse riding across Cannock Chase, up here in Staffordshire.
One day she almost fell off her horse in shock, plus the horse was freaking out as it appeared to look like a huge python was draped/hanging over a large overhanging tree-branch that was across and above a footpath. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a recent shed skin. If no python was there then there would've been no skin!
@CryptidsRoost Our climate helps restrict many species from invading though so these are pretty isolated cases.
asking strangers on the street if they want to see a snake is not the best idea they might think you have something else in mind,.
Only You think like that. 🙄😂
"play with my snake, it likes to be touched" 😮
As he opens his trench coat lol
@@jideakinola2398 ...wrong! I do too. Would you like to see my anaconda?
😂😂😂😂😂😂❤
i have known they are there for years-they did not and could not have escaped from the zoo, as they have never kept them. i have links with the reptile section at London zoo, which is how i know(insider info), but i thought there was only one colony in Wales. i am reliably informed, that they are really fond of eating the London rat population, a great reason to love them
Just out of interest, how big do grass snakes grow?
@@lesbaty8919 I've seen them just under the 6' length. I remember an excellent scene in the series 'A Passion for Angling' where they happen to capture footage of a grass snake swimming on the pond as they are fishing for carp.
@@lesbaty8919 70-150cm, though they caught one that was 175cm
Thanks for the reply, I’ve seen snakes near where I work in the midlands 6ft long 3” diameter and was told they were grass snakes but they do look a lot like these, they like basking on a concrete track and you have to stop and move them and are not fazed at all about being handled
@@lesbaty8919 As a kid my Gran would take me on walks, she always pointed out where the snakes would go to shed their skins - that was on the old Barry Line (redundant train track that used to connect neighbouring villages around the Taffs Well area via the viaduct in its day. In the Morganstown woods (the back of the quarry) there were lots of snakes. They used the ballast aggregate to help with the shed. On the Garth mountain, there were lots of vipers, they were more commonly seen basking on the stones of south facing walls.
An adder bit my wellington boot in Wales. I didn't even know there were snakes in UK until this happened.
Saw many adders and slow snakes when I was based near Dartmoor 40 yrs ago , cheers shane uk 🇬🇧
So cool, love stuff about non native species in UK and formerly native species returning to UK. I remember when I lived down in Kent in Sandwich, until I was eight or so, there were lots of corn snakes living in the local reserve and near my house in the fields, because there used to be lots of pet shops there and there was one near the house only about a fifteen minute or so walk to it. First snake I ever caught in the wild, found one under a stone on way back from school and held it as it slithered before letting it go, so vibrantly orange and red. They seemed to do really well, and my mum would purposely avoid that reserve because of how many there were. Now the pet shop there has closed and there are houses where the fields were when I came back at the age of 17 in 2021 for a visit, so I'm not sure if the corn snakes still live wild there, but I like to think some of them are still alive and breeding, it's quite warm in summer and dry there and the winters are milder there then they are in other parts of country.
There also used to be a few american bullfrogs living wild in south cambridgeshire, had one jump into my garden pond, it was so big it send splashes everywhere and was immensely fat and with those lines bullfrogs have on their body, no warts at all so not a toad and too big for one.
Also fire salamanders I know do exist in UK, I've found a few in south cambridgeshire, and I've seen a lot in southern France whenever I've seen family there on family visits growing up, so I know the difference between a great crested newt and fire salamander, the ones I found had the yellow spots all over it's body and their skin was much less lumpy looking.
Thanks for the cameo Cookie!
Thanks for being a part of it lads!
I have seen Pythons in South Wales … a few years ago one was captured in a Tree at Caldicot Castle when the RSPCA turned up it got away into a Lake nearby, Then the Man from The RSPCA found a Snapping Turtle. People who can’t manage them are letting them go into the wild, Its Unfortunate and Dangerous.
they should not be permitted as pets - there are huge negative impacts to environments when irresponsible people let them go … (not to mention death and injury to people) … A prime example is the situation in Florida, usa - where Burmese pythons and other invasive snakes have taken over there …
While the pythons won't, the snapping turtles probably will survive in England. They've been a problem in Japan for a while.
@@S.Trades Pythons are restricted in Canada as they're a strictly tropical species (in Southeast Asia really), whereas red-eared sliders are native in Illinois. Common snapping turtles are found in Canada...
I've been going there my whole life, and actually used to fish right next to that Chinese restaurant, and had no clue there are snakes there. I wish I had, I'm sure I would have found one if I'd looked every time I went. Snake hunting is going in my diary for the summer! Thanks for this.
I'd never heard that there Aesculapian snakes in Britain.
I've seen plenty of adders over the years, but I've only once seen a grass snake, although I've come across their shed skin a few times. As a kid I often went blackberry and bilberry picking on the Mendip hills where adders were pretty common and in many other places in Wales, the lake district, etc.
Once a few friends and I went wild camping one Easter in the Mendips. We found what seemed like a good place in a hollow, but then after putting the tents up spotted an adder. And another. And another and... I counted 12 in all in about a minute. I guessed they'd been hibernating in the hollow over winter and were just waking up...We decided to find another place to camp instead!😄
One of my friends got a job after uni working on the Dorset heaths. Part of his job was doing surveys on the wildlife including all the reptiles as all 3 native species of snake and the 3 species of lizard are there.
There was a bad wild fire and sadly this killed a lot of snakes. In order to get an idea of the numbers he had to collect as many dead ones as he could find.
Myself and a few other friends had come to stay that weekend in his tiny one bed flat. There wasn't room for all of us on his floor so I slept on the balcony next to a bag full of dead snakes!😴😴😴🐍🐍🐍😁
I've seen loads of hikers nearly step on basking adders in the verge next to a footpath, completely unaware they were there and before I've had a chance to warn them.
Like you I'm amazed at how many people fail to notice the wildlife around them. Perhaps I notice more because my dad was a keen birdwacher and amateur naturalist. We did a lot of long walks at the weekend and the holidays and he was always pointing things out, so I got into the habit of looking from a young age. He always carried a pair of binoculars and a couple of field guides on him, one for birds and one for plants in case we came across something interesting.
I live in a city center close to a small, partially covered river. I often see herons and even a little egret there. Also lots of urban foxes. And there are rats everywhere, but nobody else seems to notice them and are always surprised when I point them out.😐
Cookie! i havent watched you for a few months (just hadnt seen a video in my feed in a while) the quality is amazing! what a great way to present and show these animals to people online and in real life, Good video and cool snake
There's a pond in Cockfosters on the cat hill rounderbout loaded with terrapins the size of dinner plates. Been there for decades. On warm days they come out and sunbathe.
They eat the ducklings
We have some snakes here in Scotland, they are called Scottish Nationalist Snakes SNS for short.
Wasn't their natural habitat a campervan?
They want the gullible to vote Yessssssssss
there must be many there if you found two so quickly.
Not necessarily.
@@stevejacques9359 true. but finding two if they are not abundant is highly unlikely. introduced species often become very abundant until predators or diseases catch up. but i suppose there could be just two in that area and be incredibly obvious to see.
We have a whole population of smooth snakes in Cornwall Penzance. There are also many adders and grass snakes living in Crackington in North Cornwall very specific areas that I believe you may find possibly also has this type of snake that you are reviewing if anywhere else in the country does, there are very few places like it on the Cornish Coast a massive amount of trees, forests, fields, valleys, and rivers in the area
I had a grass snake and some slow worms for a couple of months when I was a kid but because I didn't know what to feed them my Mum made me release them. My cousin took me out looking for adders on the Isle of Wight and we found one within 10 minutes of leaving her house in a big pile of rubbish. I haven't seen a snake in the UK since. Also I know a gardener that got bit by an adder once.
At Denham and Rickmansworth lakes I’ve seen grass snakes, one baby and a 4 ft adult, beautiful to see in motion. Lately I also spotted a yellow bellied turtle at Ruislip Lido. 🐍🐢
Love the reptile and amphibian content!! Keep in coming! You should do a feature just on all the reptiles In the UK. Is it illigal to hold them?
It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally or recklessly: disturb them while they occupy a structure or place used for shelter or protection. obstruct access to a place of shelter or protection
in additon to what dee said "Great crested newts, natterjack toads and all marine turtles are European protected species. They have full protection under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994." All native snakes, amphibians (frogs, toads and newts) and lizards are also protected from disturbance generally and disturbance/loss of habitat
Lived in London all my life - absolutely speechless to see snakes roaming around so freely in such a busy part of London!
Ascaelatian snake? Never heard of it.
Found in Italy? Never seen.
Googles it.
Me: Ah- it's only in the far south part of Italy, what a shame...
*Adds to the checklist "go south to see danger noodles"
Rofl danger noodles
I have been around for 60 years and have only ever seen one snake in the UK, an Adder. It was having a maths competition with Diane Abbott .... Just kidding.
Diane abacus.
I hooked and landed a massive terrapin from a tiny stream in Leicestershire whilst float fishing about 30 years ago. It was completely random - my friend and I landed it and had it in the net and just stared at this monster that was the size of a large dinner plate. I’m not kidding, it was probably the largest terrapin I’ve ever seen. We threw it back in and it swam under a submerged log. If that beast survived the UK winters we used to have, and grew to that size, then I wonder what else is scraping by after being released. Great vid btw - super interesting.
Good stuff. I made this same video about a year ago. Coming back to London on Friday/Saturday to have another look.
Honestly no lie im from the uk and when i was younger i found a little baby snake no longer than your finger in my room it turned out that are neighbour pet snake had babys and one decided to rock up at mine 😂
Excellent video! I love wildlife and living in London as I do, I will keep my eyes open for these. I'm already subscribed to Clint's reptiles and to My Wild Backyard and Cool Critters who do fascinating work, I subbed to you, because its about time I had a channel closer to home. Thanks!
they are seen entwined on the international medical symbol ! popular as pets , so not strange they should be " in the wild ".
I've walked along there a few times. Didn't have a Scooby that there were non native snakes lurking. Good for them !!
Where aboyts
I've had the occasional adder in my garden I've only seen one twice so far but I rarely go into the garden in summer when they are out due to my hay fever, they are usually just curled up enjoying a sunny spot
I remember the first and only time i saw a grass snake or any kind of snake in the wild while i was fishing with my grandad, i thought it was so cool
Amazing , I once found a snake in a seaside town , a yellow tree python. About 8 ft long laying there on my very old delivery round , , I knew the owner of property , so called him up , we called out RSPCA , immediately because , it must be escaped from somewhere nearby , managed to coax it into a box. , but these snakes I know can be very aggressive , and will strike . So my concern was for children ,going past this property , it happened about , 18 years. Ago , , was massive snake , about 4i inch girth still not a full length , possible .
Wow, no idea why the algorithm decided to feed me this video but I'm glad it did.
Years ago I used to live near that area of London. One time I saw a snake stretched out along that exact towpath area (probably doomed to get run over by many bicyclists; in fact it may have already been dead). Nobody believed that what I saw could have actually been a snake... and I'd begun to doubt it myself. I started to think perhaps I'd just been spooked by a discarded rubber toy. But now I know that I was right after all.
Wow - amazing that you found them so easily, and I'm surprised that they were so near the path. They're beauties!
I live on the edge of the Quantocks. See a lot of slow worms, grass snakes & lizards. But spring time you’ve got to watch your step on the hills, had a few close calls with Adders!
There’s more than 3 species of snake in uk trouble is they’re all hid inside parliament
Thanks for this series mate I always went herping as a kid have only seen 2 wild snakes in the uk. 1 was a retic python that escaped my neighbours
In Dublin, Dublin Zoo is surrounded by a park, people have been know to release snakes in the park, in the hope they find their way into the zoo. Maybe the same happen here?
You can find lots of back stabbing snakes along Downing Street.
Grass snakes were that big when I was a lad 60 years ago. Nothing new here.
Well it is because its a non-native species
I could walk 2 miles from my house and find grass snakes of over a metre with little problem.
But that wasn’t a grass snake did you actually take any notice of the video?
Great video! Made me homesick though, I lived right by regents canal for years...used to walk to work along there..all sorts of weird & wonderful creatures around there..both human & animal! You can often see cormorants fishing...there are definitely terrapins there, Ive seen a couple, they were huge! Its a beautiful bit of London, and that chinese restaurant boat is fantastic!
I live in Brisbane, Australia - brown snakes, inland taipan and taipan are common sites here, apparently. I've never seen one. I went to school in the Ipswich are still in Southern Queensland and didn't see one there either.
There deadly ones...
Most unlikely that you'd come across an Inland Taipan anywhere near Brisbane. Eastern Browns, Red-Bellied Blacks, Mulga Snakes (King Browns) and plenty of non-poisonous Pythons are a fair bet though.
Actually if you’re talking the whole of the UK adders are the most common. We don’t get grass snakes in Scotland but we have a decent population of adders which is great.
It's extraordinarily rare, but people have died from adder bites. I recall many decades ago a child was playing in the bracken on Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, and was bitten by an adder and died. This is such a rare occurrence it apparently hasn't happened in more than 20 years, but personally I still wouldn't approach an adder in the wild!
Yes absolutely. Anyone bitten by an adder could potentially drop dead. People can have an allergic reaction to venom and die. The problem is
anyone could be allergic to venom and they wouldn’t know until they’ve been envenomated and had a bad reaction
Reptile Khan and slippery Starmer
Great video. Don’t forget the barred grass snake on the list which was only identified in 2017.
Used to have a good number of adders around the stables but as the population of badgers increased the snakes slowly died out.
I actually went snake hunting in London one evening thanks to your channel
@3:55 "So it's actually quite difficult to try and find snakes in London."
Try Westminster.
Beware.
They , like Grass Snakes have teeth and bite...
It bloody hurts!!!
I'm assuming that's the voice of experience!
All our native snakes are pretty shy and only capable of feeding on rodents, small birds and amphibians (edit -and fish). They're no trouble.
Nearby London zoo saying they didn’t escape from there is like saying Coronavirus didn’t escape from the nearby Wuhan Lab 😂
You must be the only one who still believes that bs 🤦♂
@@MrCazjd No it has been proved that it cam from the lab. The first 3 people to catch Covid worked in the Wuhan lab. So it's pretty obvious.
There are a lot of wild animals that live immediately adjacent to zoos. The surrounding areas tend to be free of pollution, safe from humans, and relatively quiet. Here in NC, there’s a massive deer and coyote population that lives in/around the zoo property. Nobody suspects them to have escaped from the zoo. Sometimes it’s just the best spot to find wildlife
@@MrCazjdus government basically admits it
@@MrCazjd you know it's been confirmed that it was Gain of Function funded by the US NiH in Wuhan. It's accepted fact, even Fauci admitted to it and should be in Jail for it
Hey great find certainly easier than Wales by the looks of it ! To my knowledge there was originally an animal importer near the canal which is the presumed source of that population not the zoo. Good work !!
Terrapins are a different type of turtle mate, not all turtles are Terrapins. But I have seen them in my local river
Thank you very much for producing and posting this video.
Awesome. This just popped up on my feed. Brilliant and now subbed.
Just along the road from where you are there used to be a pet shop that specialised in reptiles and exotic animals named Palmers, it closed about 10/15 years ago (?) perhaps they escaped from there ...
Or they’re just a native species attracted by the nearby canal and the birds that live there.
9:41 so what's to stop someone doing the same with a rattle snake
And our brothers from across the sea 😂😂
Nice video, i just leant about a snake i didn't know was in the UK
Fair play for actually finding one
I thought it was going to be another "big cat sighting" video where it shows barbaras cat chilling inna field
My house backs onto a canal or Klong' as they are called here in Thailand. Over the years the decrease in snakes has been drastic! There were always Cobras and rat snakes about but now? I see some small green snakes and golden tree snakes, copper headed runners but sadly very rarely! Do you think the large water monitor lizards are killing them all? Plenty of them as they are 'protected' Also less rats are seen. Something is happening for sure! Krub.
I was expecting this to be about the one-eyed trouser variety.
There USED TO BE Red.or Yellow-eared Slider Terrapins where the Regent's canal fed into the ponds at Camley Street Nature Reserve behind King's Cross/St Pancras stations, but i think they've be extirpated?
Considering we have snakes here in the uk probably the most rare thing to see. I’ve never come across 1 of our native snakes ever and I don’t know anyone who has
In London a lot of things have shown up as the airports use to just let things go if they were taken away from passengers.
People know they’re there, people just leave them be
I love that you pointed the snake out to people passing by, I'd have been grabbing everyone and getting them to look :)
I wonder if they ever eat any of the parakeets...
Boscombe gardens in Dorset got at least 4 different types of lizard living in it. None are native.
Where to in south wales? I’m in south wales 👀😂 seen my first adder last week
I have seen the Wallabies in Cannock Chase,
Parakeets in Milton Keynes, Sika Deer in Scotland,
but what I Really want to Know is WTF took a Mallard Duck in a local Lake from the surface and just Ate it?! 😮
No it was not dabbling and it didn't "Dive"!
Something from underneath it grabbed the duck from under the water!!
Lake Windermere,
Lake District, Cumbria. 2023.(Summer.)
Whatever it was simply Grabbed and Ate a Full grown Mallard!!
I'm thinking of trying the same thing but with Tigers, do you know what paint works on Tigers to make then green so I can hide them in those bushes?
I also never knew about those , I’m of to south wales on a wild camp next month so ile keep my eyes peeled , did capture a 3 ft grass snake on gower peninsula couple of year ago and a smooth snake in Dorset ringwood on the common , great find as under some galvanised steel , , great vid guys 👍
Hey I was wondering at around what time is the best to see those snakes
That’s really cool! Love how easily you found them too!
This is easily one of your best video's cookie, good stuff
Ruislip woods is a good place to spot Adders. I’ve got footage of a 3 feet one from a few years back.
There’s over 600 snakes in Westminster
Brilliant Cookie. What can I say! I wasn’t aware of Asculopian Snakes in the UK. Sadly they remind me of the snakes I saw on the island of Rhodes nearly 30 years ago. They were big black ones some 6+ feet long and had been run over on the roads. Loads of them ☹️
Quite a few bigguns ive seen around near London zoo.
That's insane.
I've heard of tiny baby size snakes inside of London train stations, but not snakes that size just chilling around freely.
What about scorpions in the uk london docks
One of these was run over last week in my village -I live in Herefordshire, so it appears that they’re spreading
London Zoo , no the Gorilla and the Elephant rampaging around Regents Park,nicking kids ice cream , nothing to do with us mate
Man beside a canal, to strabger: 'Want to see a snake?'
Living by the canal, and walking by this location nearly every day, it never occurred to me that there might be snakes hanging out in the bushes. I have however had a European Dormouse decide to move into my flat and raid the pantry. Animal control wasn't allowed to remove it, as it's a protected species. I can't find any evidence online that they've been spotted in North London, yet I had one climbing my walls at 3 in the morning.
Wow. I'm gonna need to go looking for them myself now! Great video!
i honestly thought you would never find on in london like that . well done
Keep up the good work Cookie
The proximity to Zoos (London & Welsh Mountain Zoo) should be the answer where they originally came from.
There are lots of animals, scorpions, unusual spiders, beetles, & plants etc that originally arrived in the docklands from all over the world too..the canals took everything we imported all over the country so a lot of london waterways have unusual visitors who made a home here..there are cormorants naturally in our coastal areas but they made their home in London because Chinese workers brought them with them to fish with. Its a really interesting part of London
such a good channel
❤️❤️❤️❤️
I can literally hear snakes in the grass from growing up in Zimbabwe. Stayed in London never saw or heard one slithering in the grass
They could have come over on a canal boat brought over from Europe, canal boats are much cheaper abroad and are often purchased than either cross the channel or are taken out of the water then brought over. I grew up around Salford Quays and there used to be tons of weird and wonderful creatures around the parks and along the canal hedgerows and wetlands in Trafford park in the 60s that came over on ships that docked at Salford Quays.
I can see why they are around the zoo's in London and the Welsh Mountain Zoo. I think the population around Bridgend is slightly more hard to explain though.
amazing, we have them here in north of Romania as well but they are super difficult to find
I saw a massive terrapin in Crystal Palace park!