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A New Species Of Snake Has Been Discovered In The UK

A New Species Of Snake Has Been Discovered In The UK

There are now four.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Scientist have discovered a new species of snake in the UK. Exciting newsssss. Sorry.

You'd think after all these years we'd have found all the animals lurking on the British Isles, but nope.

Scientists say the barred grass snake, Latin name Natrix Helvetica, is actually a completely different species to the common or eastern grass snake - Latin name Natrix natrix.


via GIPHY

Easy mistake to make I guess.

Both the grass snakes are typically found in the south of England and can grow to up to 3ft long.

Snake-spotters may be interested to know that the barred grass snake is greyer, whereas the common grass snake is olive-green in colour. The barred grass snake doesn't have the same bright yellow collar, either.

The barred grass snake. Credit: Flickr/Bernard Dupont

The new discovery brings the total number of species of snake in the UK to four - not including my ex.

According to the BBC, it was previously believed the grass snake was just one species, with different sub-species that looked a bit different, but this turned out to be wrong and the barred grass snake is now a species in its own right.


via GIPHY

The Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany made the discovery after looking into the genetics of over 1,600 snakes.

The barred grass snake is also found in western Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.

Professor Uwe Fritz told the BBC: "We discovered that the barred grass snake, previously considered a subspecies, is in fact a distinct species.

A common grass snake trying to slip the tongue in on an unsuspecting frog. Credit: PA

"We now have to pay close attention to which species of grass snake is involved in each case, in order to be able to assess whether one of them may be more threatened than previously thought."

The UK's other native snakes are the smooth snake and the adder, only the adder is venomous.


Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Snakes, UK