Slow-worm, Forest of Dean


Slow-worm, Forest of Dean, originally uploaded by Ben909.

I've set myself the ambitious goal of trying to photograph some fox cubs in the forest, on one of their first forays in to the open... trouble is knowing where to find them, and which holes they're in! Two nights so far without success, although I have seen a vixen, and had an encounter with a large wild boar last night. So the fluffy fox cubs will have to make way for the time being. It's a slow-worm picture today instead:)
Anguis fragilis, or slow worm, slow-worm, slowworm, blindworm or blind worm, is a limbless reptile native to Eurasia.
Slow-worms are semi-fossorial (burrowing) lizards spending much of the time hiding underneath objects. The skin of the varieties of slow-worm is smooth with scales that do not overlap one another. Like many other lizards, slow-worms autotomize, meaning that they have the ability to shed their tails in order to escape predators. The tail regrows, but remains smaller.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguis_fragilis

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