English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

T slow worm (Anguis fragilis) is a limbless anguid lizard native to Great Britain. This semi-fossorial lizard has a wide distribution across Europe and can be found in a variety of habitats with a preference for high levels of ground cover, where for most of the time it remains hidden in thick vegetation or underground (Beebee & Griffiths, 2000). While A. fragilis is possibly the most commonly encountered native reptile in Britain, and many aspects of slow worm biology are understood, their cryptic habits make them difficult to study. Much of what is known about slow worm behavioural ecology comes from observations associated with artificial cover objects (refuges) commonly utilised in reptile surveys (McInerny & Minting, 2016). Communal basking and hibernation assemblies involving multiple age groups of slow worms entwined together have been recorded underneath refuges, with other reptile species also regularly present (Wareham, 2008; McInerny, 2017). How the individual slow worms are related to one another in these assemblages is usually not known and the genetic tools required to create such pedigrees are usually beyond the scope of most reptile surveys. It would be logical to assume that in a species with limited dispersal capacity and small home ranges, as is the case with A. fragilis, many of the individuals seen together would be closely related. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to make inferences on their behaviour based on this assumption. Evidence of parental care in A. fragilis is lacking but it is known in other anguid lizard species, with some oviparous species exhibiting clutch guarding behaviours and subsequent attendance of neonates (Greene et al., 2006). Previous observations of captive A. fragilis females suggest they may actively attend their young, but do not exclude the possibility that observations come from passive sharing of refuges (Greene et al., 2006). McInerny and Minting (2016) suggest that postpartum care in slow worms is limited with neonates moving away from the natal site quickly after birth. Here we report on an observation that may constitute an incidence of parental care in slow worms. At 09:43 h on 27th August 2020 two adult female A. fragilis (TL ~24 cm and ~25.5 cm) and five neonates were found under a metal survey refuge during a search for survivors after a wildfire on Chobham Common NNR, Surrey, (GPS: 51° 23′13′′ N 00° 36′58′′ W). On initial discovery, the lizards were sheltering communally, with some individuals clustered together and overlying, with others separate from this group. All lizards under this refuge were collected into a plastic box (Fig. 1) The Herpetological Bulletin 155, 2021: 38-39

Apparent parental care in the slow worm Anguis fragilis