Sand lizard research

In 2004 we were awarded a £143,000 grant by SITA Trust, via the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, for a four-year project entitled ‘Heathland conservation and sand lizard status monitoring’. Sand lizards are cryptic and elusive, and therefore difficult to survey. Their activity is strongly governed by weather, time of day and season, but these effects have never been modelled, and the number of animals seen cannot be used to measure the number of animals present in a population. It has therefore always been difficult to assess the status of sand lizard populations in Britain from the limited data that tend to be available. This project was set up to develop an effective methodology for monitoring the status of sand lizard populations, and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation activities. A PhD student, Helen Fearnley, is carrying out an intensive programme of research aimed at developing a robust methodology for assessing sand lizard population status.

The three main research avenues pursued in Year 1 were:

• Modelling temporal and environmental controls on sand lizard activity
• ‘Capture-recapture’ surveys to estimate lizard population densities
• Radio-tracking of lizards to identify home ranges and activity patterns

Helen Fearnley trying to track one of 'her' Sand Lizards