THE SOUTH WEST REGION AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE GROUPS' CONFERENCE

Saturday 14th November 2015, 

This packed and informative meeting featured a stellar line up of speakers including: Darryn Nash (DICE. University of Kent), Inga Zeisset (University of Brighton), Trevor Beebee (Reptile and Amphibian Group for Somerset), Tony Gent (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation), Chris Gleed Owen (CGO Ecology), Chris Durrant (Queen Mary's University of London), Stewart Edwards (Students Invasive Non-Native Group from Newquay College, Cornwall), Francesca Dunn (Regional Officer for Southern England. Freshwater Habitats Trust), and Peter Richardson (Biodiversity and Fisheries Programme Manager, Marine Conservation Society) who spoke on topics as diverse as: reptile mitigation, adder genetics, water frogs, alpine newts, smooth snake and sand lizard introductions, and the new Mendip Ponds Project.

This broad range of topics really show-cased the breadth of conservation work on amphibians and reptiles in the South West, and provoked some lively debate (though only Trevor Beebee was able to discriminate between the water frogs). One of the highlights was a presentation on our largest 'native' herp (with accompanying picture) - and we heard more about marine turtles in the UK from Peter Richardson, the leading expert at the Marine Conservation Society. Our thanks go to John Dickson and his team at RAGS for organising an excellent day.