Slow Worm / Hazelworm

Description:

This lizard (not a snake) was spotted in a forest near Doorn (The Netherlands, Utrecht).

Notes:

Slow worms are semifossorial[1] (burrowing) lizards, spending much of the time hiding underneath objects. The skin of the varieties of slow worms is smooth with scales that do not overlap one another. Like many other lizards, slow worms autotomize, meaning they have the ability to shed their tails to escape predators. The tail regrows, but remains smaller. These reptiles are mostly active during the twilight and occasionally bask in the sun, but are more often found hiding beneath rocks and logs. They are carnivorous and, because they feed on slugs and worms, they can often be found in long grass and other damp environments. The females give birth to live young (ovoviviparous birth). In the days leading up to birth, the female can often be seen basking in the sun on a warm road. They are common in gardens and can be encouraged to enter and help remove pest insects by placing black plastic or a piece of tin on the ground. On warm days, one or more slow worms will often be found underneath these heat collectors. One of the biggest causes of mortality in slow worms in suburban areas is the domestic cat, against which it has no defence. Although these lizards are often mistaken for snakes, a number of features differentiate them from snakes. The most important one is that they have small eyes with eyelids that blink like lizards'; this feature is not found in snakes. They may also have visible ears as do lizards, which snakes do not have. They shed their skin in patches like other lizards, rather than the whole skin as most snakes do. Slow worms also shed tails (autotomy) by breaking one of their tail vertebrae in half, as a defence mechanism, as lizards do. Also, the pattern of their ventral scales is totally different from that of snakes. Adult slow worms grow to be about 50 cm long, and are known for their exceptionally long lives; the slow worm may be the longest-living lizard, living about 30 years in the wild and up to 54 years in captivity (this record is held by a male slow worm that lived at the Copenhagen Zoo from 1962 to 2009).[2][3] The female often has a stripe along the spine and dark sides, while the male may have blue spots dorsally. Juveniles of both sexes are gold with dark brown bellies and sides with a dark stripe along the spine.