It took six people to collect the Marram grass, six hours to plant up and months of planning, but an impressive new ‘home-from-home’ for sand lizards is now complete!

The vivarium is the work of Paul Hudson, from Penrith in Cumbria, who has a lifelong interest in Britain’s rarest lizard.

It is an enclosed area for keeping and raising the animals for observation, research and captive breeding.  It simulates a portion of the species’ ecosystem on a small scale with controlled environmental conditions.

Working with Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC), Natural England (NE) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), Paul has reintroduced hundreds of sand lizards into the wild helping to restore their historic range.

Paul said: “I chose my new house mainly because it has a good location for a captive-breeding vivarium so I can continue the work of breeding and reintroducing this important species.”

In Britain sand lizards are found only in southern heaths and sand dunes in the north-west.  It is the country’s rarest and most protected lizard.

To help with our reintroduction programmes, please look at our “sponsor a species” pages. Your support can make a real difference to the fortunes of these species. For more on how we help threatened reptiles and amphibians, see our Saving Species pages.