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Often confused for a snake, the slow worm is in fact a legless lizard.

Snakes and lizards are both reptiles, but there are a number of differences between them; the biggest give away is that slow worms have eyelids.

They have a short, partially forked tongue which, unlike snakes, they can't stick out of a closed mouth.

Slow worms are distributed throughout Wales, though they are most concentrated in the north, west and extreme south of the country. There is little or no data on how many we have in Wales.

They are commonly found in woodlands, heath, and wasteland and hides under stones, logs, grass cuttings, plywood, corrugated iron or slate.

Sometimes large numbers of slow worms use garden compost heaps as hibernation sites, emerging between late March and April.

When a bird attempts to eat them they 'freeze'. If the bird starts pecking they will stay completely still, shedding their tail which wriggles about for up to 15 minutes. The bird then generally picks up the tail and flies away, leaving the tail-less reptile alive. The tail regenerates in a matter of weeks into a short pointed stub.