ARC’s Education Officer for Saving Scotland’s Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAAR), Janet Ullman updates us on a busy summer so far; prize winning Champhibian School student, a new slow-worm survey, bringing Gaelic into our work and more.

The SSAARs project is having the usual busy summer. We had what is now becoming the annual schools’ day with Urban Roots in Glasgow, with over 100 school children visiting. There was also a Highland Tour of schools with the Highland Ranger Service’s ‘Puddles to Ponds project. I’ve highlighted a few other stand out updates below.

Putting Slow-worms on the map in the Highlands and Islands

The Slow-worm (Anguilis fragilis) is one of our most elusive and least understood reptiles. Our only native legless lizard, it has suffered from years of misidentification as a snake, where sadly the bad press for snakes has coloured this species existence.

Although it is legless it has the classic body shape of a lizard with a clear lizard-like head and neck, eyelids and a notched not forked tongue. It is a species that is illusive, and little is known about its living habits. What we do know is somewhat obvious in that it appreciates hiding under refugia such as corrugated iron sheets, tarpaulins and it is a visitor to traditional compost piles. It is a lover of thick grass and is common in meadows and grazing land, swimming through the grass and often going unnoticed by us.

A visit to the NBN webpage for slow-worm distribution shows you that the slow-worm is across the mainland UK but with a patchy distribution across the Highlands. It was this lack of sightings across the Highlands that caused me to wonder why this was the case. Living in the Highlands, I am used to the chat in the local shop  where if you mentioned slow-worms most people had seen one or knew of somewhere they had been seen, this was not reflected in the national recording. On discussing this with my son, Cally Ullman-Smith, ARC Volunteer and University of Edinburgh undergraduate, Cally suggested a potential university project combined with an ARC citizen science survey.

Cally has created a public Facebook group called Slow-worms Scotland, which has been shared across the Highlands between Community Trusts, the Highland Ranger Service, the Harris Trust, the National Trust for Scotland Balmacara Estate, the Scottish Crofting Federation and more. The Facebook group has asked for postings of photos of slow-worms, with date and grid reference and the reason for the project was stated as simply putting slow-worms on the map, in other words making the national record more up to date through simple recording. My ARC email address ([email protected]) has been used for those without Facebook and I have already received records through this project.

The Facebook group has gathered interest and has been featured on a Radio Skye interview with Cally and in a piece in the West Highland Free Press. Cally has been receiving a record most days and when the weather is good, he can receive several records to the Facebook group. The group has generated quite a slow-worm enthusiastic community with some good chat and exchanges between members. Most valuable of all has been the sightings in various locations including information and a post from the Harris that proves slow-worms are on the Outer Hebrides. In most guidebooks the Outer Hebrides is often left unshaded on the distribution map for this species, but with this project we can shade in that part of the map.

The Facebook group is live for the whole Summer and into October, there will be more media campaigns to keep the interest high, with Cally now touring and giving talks on the slow-worm to support the project.

The final result of the project will not be known until all the records are collated and the distribution mapped, but the first signs are that slow-worms are a vibrant part of the Highland fauna, if you know what to look for.

 

Champhibian School Student wins journalism prize

The Champhibians project, is a citizen science project for Scottish schools. Schools that have their own ponds or access to community ponds can register on the Champhibian page to become a Champhibian School, the aim being that the school receives support and resources from ARC and the school records the amphibians found during class surveys of their ponds.

Champhibian School, Stirling High School recently had a major school pond clearance done with the help of the schools Climate Ambassador Students, school staff and Stirling Council Youth Service. I visited the school pond together with Arc volunteers from the University of Edinburgh’s Wildlife Society, to conduct a full pond survey with students and staff. The pond contained a multitude of tadpoles and over twenty adult palmate newts, all obviously doing well in the pond after clearance and rubbish removal work.

On the day I had a chance to meet Emma Mitchell, a S6 student and member of the Climate Ambassadors project. Emma had been one of the key members of the school advocating the pond clearance. She, like her fellow students was delighted to see animal life doing so well in the ponds and did some filming on the day. She went on to create a video report on the pond clearance and the survey, which was entered into the Keep Scotland Beautiful Young Reporters for the Environment competition. Emma won first place in the category of film for 15- to 18-year-olds. In the film she mentioned everyone’s delight in finding newts in the pond and how unexpected it was, especially after they removed years of rubbish from the water, which included a laptop!

Emma has very kindly shared her film with ARC you can watch it below:

 

Bringing Gaelic into the Scottish Schools ARC Education Programme 

Toirt gaidhlig a-steach do phrogram foghlaim ARC nan sgoiltean Albannach

In Scotland there are two native recognised languages, Scots and Gaelic. Gaelic is the language most recognised in the Highlands, Hebrides and Argyll. It has communities in both Glasgow and Edinburgh and is recognised Worldwide as the language of the Gaels or Dal Riadan Scots dating back to 4^th century AD.

The importance of the native languages is recognised in the Scottish Curriculum and Gaelic language and Gaelic medium education is an important institution. It is with this in mind that the ARC Scottish Education programme includes Gaelic in its delivery of class sessions to Gaelic medium schools. I have been helped in my endeavours by having the help of Gaelic speaking volunteers going out with me to schools in the Highlands. I have also begun working with Gaelic speakers on the translation of the forth coming Tadpole Pack for Scottish Nursery schools.

Recognising the importance of a country’s language is crucial if we are going to take an equal role in education and outreach in any of the constituent nations of the UK, crucially many people only know some of the key species using local or Gaelic names and if we are to engage with communities, we need to respect this. The same would be the case for Wales and Welsh speakers.

I have been working with Gaelic speakers, where I have been encouraging more of a role for Gaelic in my practical sessions. The response from teachers has been very favourable and I look forward to doing more with Gaelic and Scots in future, including translations of ARC publications and leaflets.

If you would like to find out more about the Saving Scotland’s Amphibians and Reptiles projects please visit the project page.