Do you have any spooky stories about snakes, or fun froggy facts to share with us this autumn?

October the 21^st marks Reptile Awareness Day and just 10 days later is Halloween, the perfect time to tell tall tales. In the spirit of the season, we’ve chosen to share our amphibian anecdotes and reptile records in order to collate our history with these mysterious and often overlooked animals. 

When grouped together, amphibians and reptiles are called herpetofauna (“her-pet-oh-four-na”). Our herpetofauna are a huge part of our culture and heritage, and have been deeply embedded in folklore and mythology for an incredibly long time. From the Garden of Eden to middle-aged medicinal remedies, the UK has a lot to say about its opinions and suspicions of our scaly and slimy residents. There are even legends of enormous reptiles, dragons, knuckers and wyrms that inhabited the lands of the past.

At ARC, we want to preserve all of these snippets of stories and superstitions that have been passed down by word of mouth into one place, the DragonEncounters map. This way, we can have an everlasting record of the cultural importance of our native reptiles and amphibians that can be shared with the press of a button.

Our native herpetofauna has been inspiring generations of ecologists, artists, researchers, writers, scientists and regular wildlife enthusiasts. We think it's key to remind people just how special these animals are.
	Macbeth and the witches. (C) Wellcome Images 2014

Visit the map

Herp-y Halloween!