ARC Trustee, Howard Inns sums up this years Herpetofauna Workers Meeting held in Glasgow on 31st January & 1st February 2026. 

Over the years the growing sense of collaboration and community amongst all of those involved in reptile and amphibian conservation means that in our annual conference, the Herpetofauna Workers Meeting has clearly become a highly valued event.   This year attendees made their way to Glasgow and were rewarded with a fantastic range of presentation topics, workshops and social interaction.  It was great to see the conference hall at the Crown Plaza hotel filled to capacity.  The themes this year were quite broad and varies and included trends in amphibian and reptile populations, innovative approaches to habitat creation and restoration, reintroductions and translocations, engaging the public in conservation work and discussions about the future of herps in the UK, from the role of data to long-term conservation strategies.

 

Conference proceedings were kicked off by ARC CEO Tony Gent who as part of his address played a recorded video welcome recorded by MSP Sharon Dowey who is Nature Champion for Gardens and Designed Landscapes and is an enthusiastic supporter of our species in Scotland.

 

This year’s range of presentations was arguably slightly more oriented to amphibians and in that vein, the morning kicked off with a keynote from Jeremy Biggs, CEO of the Freshwater Habitats Trust who was looking back at the 40 year history of his organisation and its predecessors challenged us all with the question about whether we’ve done enough for ponds.  It wasn’t hard to understand Jeremy’s own resounding negative response to that question when he explained that ponds are richer than rivers for plant and invertebrate life yet the Freshwater Habitats Directive excluded ponds under 50 hectares and that ponds received pretty much no legal protection until the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act in 2006.  Jeremy went on to enumerate the surveys and initiates over the last four decades which have built better appreciation of this vital amphibian resource and ended by looking forward in the hope that the Water Reform Bill will help and that we will be able to protect biodiverse pond hot spots, protect the best ponds irrespective of their size and continue to build the alliances and partnerships that are so vital to us all making progress in the coming decades.

Without doubt the rise of organisations focused of achieving gains for wildlife and people through rewilding is an important opportunity for our species and it was great to hear from Lisa Chilton, the CEO of Scotland – The Big Picture, a five year old organisation driving support for re-wilding amongst private landowners from food producers to crofters.  The nine core principles of Lisa’s organisation include more space for water and joined up habitats which are both cornerstone strategies for our species as are their pre-requisites of no muir-burn and no pesticides on the land included in their projects.

 

 

Keeping the focus on Scotland Katherine Watley from Nature Scot presented the Scotland Herp Strategy and did a great job of explaining what the next 20 years could look like in a country where 91% of the people live in just 2.3% of the land area yet action for reptiles and amphibians, even from the basics of recording relies on citizen science.  As for all of us there’s some challenges ahead but setting targets and establishing a strategy is an essential first step.

 

The second half of each morning was given over to the workshop sessions, which in Glasgow followed the same format as previous years in that four workshops ran in parallel and attendees had the opportunity to select two, one during the Saturday session and the other during the Sunday session.  There were some great topics this year and it was particularly good to include a youth symposium (Workshop B) where some of the young voices in herpetology presented their views and discussed the work they are engaged in now and on Sunday held a Green Jobs panel discussion with representative consultants, ecologists, field workers, academics and outreach staff who helped young people with advice about how to maximise their skills and create applications that stand out.

 

Workshop C included an opportunity for attendees to comment on drainage schemes under the topic of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems or SUDS which, especially with the level of housebuilding and development current in the UK, should at least attempt to prevent unnecessary harm to amphibians (for example by being trapped and drowned in rainwater gulley pots) and at best provide opportunities for them to thrive in the habitats that SUDS schemes could provide.  The Great Crested Newt Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) came under scrutiny in Workshop D that recognised the need to revise the method and guidance and took advantage of the presence of so many active practitioners in this field to capture their opinions and suggestions as the revision process continues.  Workshop A explored the role of genetic techniques was considered as a conservation tool.  The body of knowledge of the genomics of our species continues to grow and this workshop considered attendees view on how this knowledge might contribute to on-the ground conservation activity.

 

 

After an impressive lunch, Saturday’s third plenary session provided different perspectives on the conservation of our anuran species and included three superbly presented presentations.  Jack Harper’s presentation drew on his on-the-ground experience of Natterjack Toad conservation as ARC’s Amphibian Conservation Officer by telling the story of re-creating a former Natterjack Toad site in Hampshire and successfully bring the species back, as a sustainable breeding species over the last 5 years though a very local wild to wild re-introduction.  Lewis Dunmore from Banham Zoo and Tim Baker from Natural England, told another recent success story for the Pool Frog by describing the new captive rearing and breeding facility that was set up in 2025 at the zoo in Norwich to headstart and ultimate captive-breed Pool Frogs to help the population in the existing re-introduction sites and potentially new sites withing the presumed former range of the species in East Anglia.  In its first year of operation in 2025, 719 pool frogs were raised with a 99% survival rate from spawn to froglet – impressive!  The final presentation in this series was from Harvey Tweats, one of the founders and Directors of Celtic Rewilding who presented the work he has been doing to explore the opportunity to bring back to the UK some of the frog species that the fossil record tells us were once present in Britain, specifically the Moor Frog and the Agile Frog.  He also described some early-stage experiments to explore the feasibility of the European Pond Tortoise being able to thrive as a breeding species in the UK.  It was great to see these three different approaches to the challenging situation, made worse by climate change, faced by our frog and toad species and also encouraging to welcome new and different approaches and new personalities to this open and broad-minded community.

 

In the final session on Saturday, we welcomed Thomas Duchesne from Natagora in Belgium who described some fascinating monitoring, data analysis and modelling work to explore the status of the Viviparous Lizard in the Wallonia region of Belgium with a view to exploring occupancy changes of the species.  This groundbreaking technique that went a lot further than just looking at presence or abundance data but took in a lot of peripheral data as well.  Sadly the technique pointed to the conclusion that the species has declined by nearly 12% in 14 years with declines being felt more keenly in the lowlands of the region.

 

The final two presentations from the ARC Staff based in Scotland, Janet Ullman -ARC’s Scottish Education Officer, Rachael Cooper-Bohannon (SSAAR) and Liam Templeton who outlined some of the amazing work they and their volunteers and collaborators have been doing and continue to do to raise the profile of our species and in the case of Liam’s work with Species on the Edge on the Scottish Solway  six other rare species that live alongside the Natterjack Toads.

 

The Gala Dinner and the now legendary  ‘Have I got Newts for You’ quiz all ran superbly well, the quiz this year ably hosted by Owain Masters and members of the Youth Symposium who also acted as judges for the crafting challenge to construct a model of ‘Nessie’s lesser-known cousin’ which prompted a demonstration of the skill, creativity and ridiculousness we’ve come to expect from such challenges.  All of this frivolity acted (for the most hardy) as a pre-cursor to a night out in Glasgow.

 

 

The Sunday weather was a repeat of Saturday’s – perfect conference weather in that it was dull – the sort of weather that made you glad you were inside rather than early spring sunshine to make you wish you were out looking for super-early emerging reptiles. 

 

The morning session focused attention on Great Crested Newts (GCN) and other amphibians in Scotland and included a narrative on a re-survey of newts in Edinburgh and the Lothians from Finn McElrue-Inch and Luisa Dickenmann (who also helped run the Youth Symposium workshop) which included use of a ‘newt-cam’ that had recorded the presence of GCN.  This was followed by a presentation on amphibians at a former shale-oil site subsequently use for land-fill site that has become a wild space for recreation and wildlife.  It has seven ponds, but it still has standpipes and a drainage system that trap amphibians.  Thankfully alternative drainage covers have been installed to mitigate the problem so hopefully future mortality will be reduced.  The final presentation in this set was from Kirsty McArthur whose presentation was based on her recently completed PhD thesis relating to SUDS and their ability, by intercepting and treating rainwater run off, to contribute both aquatic and terrestrial habits for amphibians, a topic that is vitally important given the increase in the development of new residential areas.  Look out for the publication of Kirstie’s work which will be published soon.

  

After lunch, Professor Richard Griffiths opened with the amazing story of the publication by the British Herpetological Society (BHS) aided by Richard of work conducted by Bob Stebbings over 60 years ago which focused on Grass Snakes in part of Purbeck in Dorset.  This meticulous work, collected through field observations between 1958 and 1962 with 718 adult snakes being closely recorded without the aid of Artificial Cover Objects or tins!  This work provides a wealth of information that really tells the story of this species and its breeding habits.  The main breeding site for the population was an old sawmill with piles of sawdust that the snakes used as egg incubators.  Richard really brought the presentation alive with anecdotes about Bob Stebbings and what a remarkable herpetologist he is.   The work is published as a special report on the BHS Web Site.

  

Stephen Corcoran followed with a discussion highlighting the challenges of locating and safeguarding Adder populations during peatland restoration projects.   Such projects have an important role in restoring these important places but careful consideration does need to be given to Adders particularly in and around hibernation sites that will be impacted by rising water levels.  The day concluded with Tony Gent ARC CEO, aided by Harry Ward-Smith of ARC, presenting at short notice on behalf of Paul Edgar on the topic of the 140 species of Reptile and Amphibian that inhabit Britains Overseas Territories and Dependencies.  Tony did a great job, entertaining us with photographs of fascinating species that Paul had included, often without names, which were capably identified in real time.  He also emphasised the point that 37 species are endemics and the status of over one third is endangered or worse so whilst there are some good news stories there are some that are less encouraging including the Bermuda Skink which has been driven out of the few remaining places where it survives by property development and introduced predators.

 

A BIG THANK YOU to all concerned in making the conference such a success including the chairs for each of our session – Rachael Cooper-Bohannon, Jim Foster, Kirsty MacArthur, Chris Cathrine, Steve Allain and closing remarks from Chris Monk.  We also thank our sponsors, FAH, Clyde Amphibian and Reptile Group, RSK Biocensus, BHS, NHBS, Captive and Field Herpetology, Amphibian Ladders and Ecoloyia.

 

The Herp Workers’ Meeting goes from strength to strength, make sure you remain part of this thriving and every developing community by booking early for the next annual event when details are published in the Autumn,  I look forward to seeing you there.

 

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Thank you to this year's sponsors: