{"id":2081,"date":"2011-08-31T18:39:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T17:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2011-08-31T18:39:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T17:39:23","slug":"sand-lizards-released-back-to-the-wild-on-merseyside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/2011\/08\/sand-lizards-released-back-to-the-wild-on-merseyside\/","title":{"rendered":"Sand lizards released back to the wild on Merseyside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighty sand lizards have been released as part of a project to protect the species in Merseyside, North West England.<\/p>\n

The sand lizard is, according to the Wildlife Trust, the UK’s rarest lizard.<\/p>\n

\"80<\/a>
80 captive-bred sand lizards released on the Sefton Coast. Pic - Phil Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Released on the Sefton Coast, at The Lancashire Wildlife Trust\u2019s Freshfield Dune Heath, the captive-bred sand lizards are part of a long-term conservation project.<\/p>\n

The release at Freshfield is one of 19 projects within the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership Scheme, a three year Heritage Lottery Funded Project being delivered by the Sefton Coast Partnership.<\/p>\n

It is also supported by the North Merseyside Amphibian and Reptile Group, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Natural England.<\/p>\n

In the UK, sand lizards only live on two rare habitats, sand-dunes and lowland dry heath.<\/p>\n

A healthy population still survives on the sand dunes of the Sefton Coast but they have been lost from the heathland.<\/p>\n

Last September, 34 juvenile Sand Lizards were released at Freshfield and a number have been found and photographed since, moving further away from the release site than had been anticipated.<\/p>\n

Merseyside sand lizards have a unique genetic make-up and the juveniles due for release have been captive bred from local stock by individuals from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.<\/p>\n

The animals are being released now to allow them to get used to the re-introduction site gradually before hibernation in October.<\/p>\n

Fiona Whitfield of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust said: \u201cWe are excited at the arrival of a new species for the reserve and to be a part of these important local and national projects. There is a large population of common lizards on Freshfield Dune Heath so we are confident that the sand lizards will thrive here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighty sand lizards have been released as part of a project to protect the species in Merseyside, North West England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[440,31],"tags":[3828,3821,1682,1426,3823,1236,1424,3830,2836,3827,1439,114,3824,3831,3819,3820,3818,3809,3829,3817,3822,3826],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-featured","category-projects","tag-amphibian","tag-coast-landscape","tag-conservation-project","tag-freshfield","tag-heritage-lottery","tag-hibernation","tag-lancashire-wildlife-trust","tag-last-september","tag-lizards","tag-national-projects","tag-north-merseyside","tag-north-west-england","tag-partnership-scheme","tag-phil-smith","tag-rare-habitats","tag-reptile-conservation","tag-reptile-group","tag-sand-dunes","tag-sand-lizard","tag-sand-lizards","tag-sefton-coast","tag-term-conservation","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin-2\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2090,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions\/2090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}