Conservationists come to aid of Hackney’s reptiles and amphibians

Given a leg up: Grass snake. Photograph: Barry Kemp

Snakes on Hackney Marshes are being given a leg up by wildlife-loving volunteers.

Lizards, frogs and newts are also being given a helping hand.

New breeding sites for the scaly and slimy creatures were created at the Waterworks Nature Reserve as part of charity Froglife’s Dragon Finder project – so called because many reptiles and amphibians look like miniature versions of the fire-breathing monsters of myth.

There is a thriving population of grass snakes on the banks of the River Lea, and these creatures regard mounds of rotting manure, hay and grass clippings as excellent egg-laying sites.

In early spring they participate in “mating balls”, basically gigantic orgies, in which they congregate in a writhing reproductive mass.

“We will be creating basking spots and hibernacula,” says Victoria Ogilvy, who manages the Dragon Finder project.

The Marshes also provide habitats for smooth newts and common lizards, which, contrary to their name, are rare in London at least. When the Olympic Park was being built, hundreds of newts and lizards were collected by hand and transferred to the Waterworks Nature Reserve to save them from getting squashed.

“Populations of all these species have been decreasing nationally since the start of 1900s, when there was an intensification of agriculture and greater use of pesticides,” says Dr Ogilvy. “There are fewer and fewer places for them to breed too, and they are quite sensitive to changes in their environment.”

Frogs, newts and other amphibians’ thin skin means they are vulnerable to absorbing lethal toxins.

Amphibians are referred to as “bio-indicators” because their health is indicative of the health of the environment.

Conservationists have also been left shocked by the scale of the destruction wrought by chytrid, a fungus that can cause infections and has led to the extinction of around 150 amphibian species worldwide.

Although its impact is not as great in the UK as in the tropics, it remains a cause of concern for British ecologists.

But why should we care about the fate of reptiles and amphibians both in this country and globally?

For one thing, they live mind-bogglingly bizarre lives that are like something out of the most outlandish of fictions. This, if nothing else, makes them worthy of our appreciation.

The sex lives of amphibians are particularly interesting. Dr Ogilvy cites the behaviour of one frog species in which males swallow fertilised eggs and promptly cease producing stomach acids in order to incubate the tadpoles in their stomachs. They then “cough out tiny little frogs”.

“There is another species called the surinam toad,” she adds. “The female softens the skin on her back and then the male comes along and fertilises the eggs she produces, and he’ll actually squash them into the soft skin of her back, and then you’ll get the little tadpoles developing.

“They hatch out as hundreds and hundreds of little frogs, but because this is an aquatic species the offspring pop directly out of the skin on the female’s back and swim into the water.

“There are amazing videos of that on YouTube. It looks really, really weird.”

Appropriately enough, given all this reproductive weirdness, it appears amphibians could also help cure certain sexually transmitted diseases in humans.

“Scientists have found peptides in amphibian skin that kill the HIV virus,” says Dr Ogilvy.

Reptiles can be equally amazing because they are a living link back to the dinosaurs that once ruled the Earth.

Snakes and lizards sniff with their tongues and recharge themselves from the sun’s heat by basking on rocks.

And as anyone who has ever seen a grass snake in the Lee Navigation Canal knows, they can be excellent swimmers. The sight of one slithering through the water is more likely to make you stop and stare in amazement than flee in misplaced fear (grass snakes are harmless), particularly because it is such an unexpected sight in inner city London.