AW
Ecology
There are six species of reptile in Britain & all have some level of protection uner both EU & UK law. Any development that affects them ot their habitat requires a European Protected Species licence. The four more common reptiles - grass snake, adder, slow worm and common lizard, are legally protected by UK law.
The optimum time to carry out surveys is between:
* March & October habitat suitability
* April to June ) presence/population
* September & October )
* March/July/August sub optimal presence population
Forward planning is essential so as not to miss these important times.
The identification of possible presence of certain mammals is carried out during the scoping survey stage. If further survey work is required, this can be planned early in the development process.
We can carry out
survey and
mitigation works for
protected species
including; water
voles, otters,
badgers and dormice.
Mammals
Reptiles
Newts
European Otter
Great Crested Newt
There is a very narrow survey window for newts, therefore forward planning is essential. The possibility of newts being present on a site will be picked up in the scoping survey.
A variety of methods are used to determine the presence of newts and include:
Egg search: Examining submerged vegetation for newt eggs
Torching: Searching a pond by torchlight between dusk and midnight
Netting: A dip-net is used to search the perimeter of the pond
Bottle trapping: Bottle traps are submerged around the pond
Terrestrial search: Refugia such as logs, bark, rocks and debris are
perimeter at dusk and removed the following morning. This method
can only take place when night time temperatures exceed 5°C,
so is confined to Spring and Summer
carefully searched.
Surveys for breeding Great Crested Newts are restricted to their breeding season of mid March - mid June and all ponds within 500m of a development site need to be assessed. A population estimate will be necessary to obtain
a licence for a development to proceed.