If you are reptile fan you’ll be pleased to hear that nearly 400 baby sand lizards will be released into the British countryside in the next two weeks. You may even spot one of the tiny lizards if you live near one of the places where they are being freed in Surrey, Dorset and Mid Wales. You will have to be patient, though: they are very shy, hibernate from October to March and spend much of their time underground even in fine weather. The lizards used to live on heathland across the country but numbers fell catastrophically as their habitats were destroyed by farming, forestry and building projects.
The baby sand lizards were bred in captivity but handlers were careful not to have too much contact with them so they wouldn’t become too tame. The first release took place at a National Trust nature reserve in Surrey yesterday.
Over the years, scientists have undertaken various projects to reintroduce species of birds, animals and insects into the wild in Britain. Here are some of the main ones ...
Wild boar
Wild boar were reintroduced to Britain by accident! The last wild boar was thought to have been caught here 300 years ago — but since the 1980s several have escaped from farms and returned to their natural habitat. They are believed to live in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, on the Kent-Sussex border and also in parts of Dorset, Devon and North Yorkshire.
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Beaver
Three European beaver families were introduced to the Knapdale Forest in Mid Argyll, Scotland, in May this year. Each family was taken to a different loch in the forest and left to settle in. The beavers are native to Scotland but last lived wild there in the 16th century. Since the modern trial began, keepers have found two beaver dams in the forest — probably the first for 400 years.
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Sea eagle
Sea eagles were hunted to extinction in Britain by the Victorians, but this summer 14 chicks were released into the wild in eastern Scotland. The chicks, from Norway, have been fitted with radio tags so that scientists can plot where they go for the next five years.
Red squirrel
Believe it or not, there used to be so many red squirrels in Britain that measures were taken to reduce the population. Now there are so few that a special breeding project is being run on the island of Anglesey, off North Wales.
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Part of the reason why there are now so few red squirrels is that grey squirrels, which were introduced from America, took over. Now conservationists trap the larger, more robust grey squirrels to encourage red squirrels to thrive.