As part of Jersey’s efforts to protect its local species, the Island takes part in the National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme (NARRS) (www.narrs.org.uk). The scheme is a partnership project led by the UK’s Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Group (ARC-UK) and the Jersey Amphibian & Reptile Group (JARG). NARRS has been running in Jersey for five years and aims to tell us more about the status of the amphibian and reptile species across the British Isles and specifically here in Jersey.

Central to NARRS is the use of trained volunteers to collect the data. At annual training events, in the form of talks and workshops, interested volunteers are trained in NARRS species identification, survey methodologies and health and safety.  They are provided with a survey site, appropriate equipment and forms to fill in to help them complete their survey.

Every year NARRS highlights a species or issue relevant to conservation in the island. For 2012, to coincide with the Year of the Lizard and Jersey’s published biodiversity action plan, the focus is on the legless lizard known as the slow-worm.  These fascinating but secretive lizards are not slow at all, but live mainly in ant nests and under rotting wood etc. Slow-worms are the original gardener’s friend, drawn by the abundance of slugs and other food.

We are not sure how slow-worms in Jersey are doing at the moment because they are so under-recorded, so to improve our knowledge of these mysterious lizards, the Department of the Environment is running a Jersey slow-worm survey across the Island. The survey will help us to build up a picture of where slow-worms are distributed, their apparent attraction to compost sites, and what sort of conditions suits them best. It is important to stress that the slow-worm likes hiding under forms of refugia (usually corrugated metal sheets, roofing felt or carpet tiles) so to improve the chances of detecting them looking under any forms of existing refugia would be beneficial.

Records will be collected from gardens and compost heaps and used to work out what kinds of habitats slow-worms are using. We hope to collect enough information to establish information against which to judge future trends and, where necessary, take action to conserve the species for years to come.

If you would like to participate, please complete the attached form and return it to: Nina Cornish, Department of the Environment, Howard Davis Farm, Trinity, JE3 5JP. Or complete online at http://www.gov.je/Environment/ProtectingEnvironment/Land/Endangered/Pages/Sightings.aspx.

If you want to help with other amphibian and reptile surveys, you can find details at http://groups.arguk.org/jarg/.

Jersey Slow-worm survey

Please join our survey to help us find out more about the slow-worm in Jersey and its apparent attraction to compost. Drawn by the abundance of slugs and other food, slow-worms are the original gardener's friend. These shy and harmless animals look like small snakes but are in fact legless lizards.

Help us to build up a picture of how important compost heaps are to slow-worms and what sort of conditions suit them best. Hopefully we will collect enough information to establish a baseline to help us judge future trends and, where necessary, take action to conserve the species for the future.

Reptile and amphibian sightings

Jersey Amphibian and Reptile Group (JARG) in conjunction with Jersey’s Biodiversity Partnership has set up a recording database for reptiles and amphibians. Recording wildlife provides us with continual monitoring of the species found in Jersey. The records establish the distribution of species throughout Jersey, which help us to focus our conservation efforts where it is needed most.

http://www.gov.je/Environment/ProtectingEnvironment/Land/Endangered/Pages/Sightings.aspx

Toadwatch

Over the next few months, the Toadwatch Campaign is once again asking members of the public to send in records and reports of toad, tadpole and toad spawn sightings in and around their gardens and ponds. Any information about toad sightings, ponds with toads or ponds that were previously used as spawning sites but have now become dormant, can be sent to toadwatch@durrell.org or left as a detailed message on the Toadwatch line 860053.

http://www.durrell.org/In-the-field/Campaigns/Toadwatch/

During the course of the diet trials some interesting observations were made.  Initially it appeared that the tadpoles on the blended diet were growing slightly faster than the other diet groups, which was somewhat as we expected.  It was at this point that we began to notice some tadpoles with slightly crooked tails, mostly among the blended diet groups.  At this point we suspected the diet as the cause of the problem and the blended diet was stopped with the tadpoles from that group put on the standard fish flake regime.  As the tadpoles continued to develop the bent tail occurrences began to be seen in the other tanks as well (at a lower proportion), eventually all tanks presented with a proportion of individuals with bent tails.  As tadpoles began to develop further and back legs developed it was clear that some of the legs were also developing bowed which prevented them from functioning properly.  This development occurred independently from the bent tails. 

Overall the data collected appears to indicate that kinked tails developed more frequently in the blended diet group, but it was also present in a lower frequency in both bloodworm and fish flake groups. In contrast, the deformed legs appeared more abundantly in the blended diet and fish flake diet in comparison to lower frequencies, but still present, in the bloodworm diet.  Due to the timing of these occurrences rather late in the development of the tadpoles such that some releases had already occurred to Ouaisne.  As a result of these issues veterinary staff from Durrell, the States and staff from both institutions decided that the best solution was to preserve as many specimens as possible for viral, parasitic and molecular analysis. Some of the lesser affected tadpoles were retained to asses for potential vitamin B deficiency.  Trials with vitamin B baths were conducted but preliminary results are not enough evidence to make a strong conclusion on a cause of these issues.  Less tadpoles developed bent legs on the vitamin B supplement, however it is not known if they would have developed them naturally, or if the vitamin B actually prevented the deformity.

The total number of tadpoles release into Ouaisne this year was 2463.  Future analysis will look more deeply into a potential cause of these deformities including possible temperature effects (this year was warmer than normal) and potential monitoring of wild tadpoles for comparison to captive reared populations as we have no evidence to know whether wild populations faced increased deformities or similar situations as the captive reared populations this year.

It was so dry for so long that we were very concerned that conditions would never be right for the toads to make their way to their breeding ponds. However we made our first patrol at Grand Vaux reservoir this year on 23^rd February  and were successful in saving a handful of toads (together with some newts) from the perils of the road.  We continued our patrol at St Ouen’s Bay and although we found very few toads there too, we were pleased to be able to help a few here to safety.

We then waited for another suitable night…. and we waited…and we waited……the rain never seemed to come and so we decided to try another tack this year. Two of our keen Toadwatchers agreed to take responsibility for watching the roads in their area and reporting back to us on their findings. This seemed to be more sensible given the conditions - rather than a large group of us turning out to one area we were able to cover more areas on a regular basis. However we received no reports of large numbers of toads moving en masse nor of huge numbers killed on the roads and we just have to hope that they made their way to their ponds and back quietly and safely when we were not watching!

The strange season weather-wise also resulted in fewer reports of sightings of toads than normal but the reports we did receive have all been logged and we will be able to monitor trends each season.

We will be out and about again in 2012 looking for toads and hoping to hear lots  of reports from the people of Jersey again then.