ARC Trust - Connecting London’s Amphibian & Reptile Habitats (CLARE)

Connecting Londons Amphibian & Reptile Environments (CLARE)

If you have seen any amphibians or reptiles within Greater London please fill in the 'Scaling the City' CLARE form on GiGL's website and help us to find out where in the region these animals live.

Surprisingly, there is very slow worm in grass little information about the distribution of amphibians and reptiles in London and this is hampering opportunities to conserve them.

London has a superb diversity of wildlife. Nine of the thirteen British native herpetofauna species occur naturally in the Capital, these are; common frog, common toad, great crested newt, smooth newt, palmate newt, slow-worm, common lizard, grass snake and adder.

There are also other species, some of which are not naturally found in Britain thriving in small pockets of land in London.

A Smooth newt in pond in Mudchute Park, Tower Hamlets RC has teamed up with London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL - the Capital's Environmental Records Centre) and London Amphibian and Reptile Group (LARG) with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund for this exciting project.

The project (running between June 2011 - July 2012) is campaigning for a wider public participation and education in wildlife recording and a raised profile and understanding of amphibians and repiltes and their distribution within Greater London.

The aims of the project are:

to find out more about where London's amphibians and reptiles can be found

to provide information that will help look after them into the future.

to ask people to look for these animals and to tell us where they have seen them

to provide an opportunity for people to see what they look like and to find out how best to look for them in the wild through a series of events

to produce an atlas of distribution based on records and on predictive mapping/ modelling

to provide specific training and advice to help staff and volunteers of London Wildlife Trust (LWT), London Amphibian & Reptile Group and others, to promote amphibian and reptile conservation, especially on LWT Reserves and through LWT landscape projects

Latest news:

The CLARE Project is in its final stages and to commemorate the end of this successful partnership project we have produced a more up to date atlas on the distribution of London's amphibians and reptiles. London's first publicly accessible amphibian and reptile atlas will be launched on Friday 20th July, hosted by GiGL on their website www.gigl.org.uk

To celebrate the launch of the Atlas we will be holding a Launch Party at London Wildlife Trust's Camley Street Natural Park on Friday 20th July.If you are interested in attending (all welcome) please email Sophie: sophie.hinton@arc-trust.org

Nick Baker with ARC at WildlifeXpo 2011 CLARE at Thames Festival 2011

Nick Baker with us at the WildlifeXpo CLARE at Thames Festival

To see more photos from CLARE events, visit ARC's facebook page.

For further information about the project or to find out how you can get involved please contact Sophie.Hinton@arc-trust.org

For more information about CLARE project partners please visit:
London Wildlife Trust
GiGL
LARG

CLARE Scaling the City leaflet >>>

CLARE Scaling the City ID Guide & Record Form >>>

Cold Blooded Londeners - Mini Guide: amphibians and reptiles >>>