The Smooth Snake (Coronella austriaca)

Copyright: Mike Preston

This is a small slender snake that usually only grows to 60-70cm in length. It is generally grey or dull brown in colour with black markings.  The markings are arranged in bars or two rows of dots down the back, a heart shaped ‘crown’ covering the top of the head and an eye stripe that extends from the head along the side of the neck and front part of the body.  Its name comes from the fact that its scales are flat and smooth, unlike those of the Grass Snake and Adder which have a ridge or keel down the middle of each scale.

The Smooth Snake is Britain’s rarest reptile and is found on heathlands in Dorset and Hampshire and on one or two heaths in Surrey and West Sussex.  There are old records from heaths in adjacent counties.  Many of the sites on which it occurs are also inhabited by the Sand Lizard.  It is non-venomous and feeds mainly on lizards, in particular Common Lizards and Slow-worms which are captured and constricted in coils of its body, and small mammals (especially shrews and nestling rodents).  Live young, which look very similar to the adults, are born in September.  It is a secretive animal and when it basks in the sun it does so entwined amongst the stems of heather plants where it is superbly camouflaged.  The Smooth Snake shares the Slow-worm’s habit of hiding under stones, logs and other debris exposed to the sun and this is where it is most often encountered. 

Because it is so rare, the Smooth Snake is strictly protected by British and European law which makes it an offence to:

• kill, injure or capture them;

• disturb them in any way

• damage or destroy their habitat

It is utterly dependent on well managed heathland where it occupies mature vegetation that provides good cover.