Slow worm makes its entrance

A COUPLE of weeks ago on this page I wrote about lizards and I mentioned that slow worms, a species of legless lizard, had been illegally introduce to the Burren about 20 or 25 years ago and that I was curious to know whether they still survived there.

I got a very interesting email from a reader in response to this.

“I have seen little lizards a few times near the river where we live in Clare. However, last spring myself, my husband and our two boys aged six and seven were in the bog turning our turf. The boys were playing in the dry grass near a drain. Our eldest boy came towards us running and shouting with a terrified look on his face. He insisted he had seen a brownish snake that rose up its head and neck and hissed at him. He was shaken and I believed he had seen something. We went online afterwards and eventually discovered the slow worm. He insisted that is what he saw. We have never seen one since but maybe more live in the bogs in Clare, and even further afield. This one was seen in east Clare — a small bog known locally as ‘The Red Bog’ just outside O’Briensbridge, at least 40 miles from the Burren.”