Searching for Jörmungandr – the dragons that dwell in St Andrews - by Alex B

ᛒᛁ ᚪᛚᛖᚳᛋ ᛒᚱᚩᚹᚾ (1)

The Altuna runestone. Jörmungandr, the World Serpent, is at the bottom of the stone; Thor is depicted fishing for the massive beast with an ox’s head.

Scotland is not exactly well known for clear skies, dry weather and lots of sun. But somewhat surprisingly, there are in fact cold-blooded beasts to be found roaming around the university campus.

Herpetofauna (herps for short) is an unnecessarily fancy term for amphibians and reptiles. In the UK, we have 6 native species of reptile and 7 native species of amphibian. However, only 3 of these reptiles and 6 of these amphibians are found in warm, sunny Scotland! Herps are generally pretty secretive, small (with the exception of the odd 1.5m grass snake!) and well-camouflaged, so most people aren’t aware they’re around, let alone which particular species are present.

But why care about these small, elusive animals? First off, they are fascinating organisms in their own right. These often tiny animals have such intricate complexity, from each minute jewel-like scale to the beady little eye watching you suspiciously. There seems to be something vaguely fantastical about them. Indeed, the name of our native legless lizard, the slow worm, comes from the Old English ᛋᛚᚪᚹᛁᚱᛗ (‘slāwyrm’), slā- meaning 'earthworm'/'slow worm' and wyrm meaning ‘serpent’ or ‘dragon’. Herps are deeply embedded within folklore and culture – from the cauldrons of Shakespeare’s witches to Jörmungandr (ᛄᛟᚱᛗᚢᚾᚷᚨᚾᛞᚱ), the World Serpent, who Vikings believed encircled the entire earth. St George is famous for killing the dragon (definitely a reptile), while treasure-hoarding wyrms are a recurring motif of Germanic mythology. Even that famous icon of Scotland, the Loch Ness monster, is most often depicted as some form of plesiosaur, a group of now (sadly) extinct marine reptiles.

The Loch Ness monster, proof of the cultural significance herps have in the UK. Still unknown whether or not we have a small one lurking in the NHP (2).

Yet maybe the treasure such creatures hoard is not their gold but rather the herps themselves. Herps have huge ecological importance due to the key roles they play in the food webs of a wide range of ecosystems. For instance, frogs and toads are prey for a large variety of predators, while also providing valuable services by controlling pests like slugs and therefore reducing the need for chemical pesticides. Herps occupy a wide range of niches and trophic levels, from largely insectivorous frogs to the grass snakes that eat them and the smooth snakes that in turn occasionally eat those!

Gah – I could have recorded that frog on QField (3)! Pictures from the internet of various things (top to bottom: grey heron, grass snake and great diving beetle larva) eating common frogs, demonstrating their ecological importance. Nature, red in tooth and claw. Grass snakes primarily eat amphibians, luckily for the frogs and toads at the NHP they aren’t found in Scotland. Grey herons, however, are a different matter – and on several occasions have spotted the amphibians before I have…

Herps can also be incredibly useful as indicator species – the highly permeable skin of amphibians makes them vulnerable to contaminants in both air and water and they are generally very sensitive to environmental change. Interestingly, amphibians can provide an indication of the health of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems since their lifecycle involves both types of ecosystem. Meanwhile, conservation of herps can also benefit other species by creating and maintaining the ideal habitats for them, or through the role of herps as ‘flagship species’, raising support for more general biodiversity conservation. Herps make the outdoors an fascinating place and encourage people (me included!) to get outside, engage with and appreciate nature.

So herps are pretty awesome. This raises an important question – which species could there be in St Andrews? Here’s guide to what we might be able to see…

We set about surveying the herps in a few different methods. One of the easiest and most effective ways of searching for reptiles is laying out roofing felt mats. These heat up in sunny weather, and as a result attract ectothermic (i.e. cold-blooded) reptiles and amphibians looking for warmth and shelter. I’ve seen grass snakes, slow worms, common lizards and even a great crested newt under these! We also ran evening walks to see what amphibians were about, since many are nocturnal and therefore

So far, the roofing felt mats have yielded little success other than a few woodlice and slugs – though this may very well change as the weather gets warmer and sunnier. However, we found a lot on the amphibian walks:

The first herp of the surveys: a well-camouflaged common frog spotted in a rather nasty litter-filled ditch between AMH and a car park.

Smooth newts crossing the road near Mount Melville. These were some of the lucky ones and hadn’t been run over. I haven’t seen any newts on university grounds yet but these guys provide some strong evidence that they’re pretty likely to be here.

Frogspawn (the brown blob right at the bottom) in the North Haugh pond. Melville provides a scenic backdrop to the great spectacle of the amphibian life cycle.     

Toads galore! There are 4 in the picture on the top, we saw 85 in total on this particular amphibian walk. To the bottom, 2 toads are in the process of making tadpoles, the smaller one is probably a male.

It’s amazing to know that common frogs and toads do breed on uni-managed land and that smooth newts can be found so close by; the presence of such breeding sites provides important evidence that the NHP and surrounding grassland need to be protected from development. Interestingly, so far we’ve only found amphibians around St Andrews, perhaps reflecting the generally more elusive nature of UK reptiles. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t reptiles around town though; I think I’ll have to keep at the herp surveys during the summer when it gets warmer and reptiles are more active! It’s become increasingly clear to me that exploring and monitoring the wildlife around you isn’t a neat, 15-credit one-off you forget about once you’ve done an exam. Rather, it’s a messy life-long addiction that gets you up at 6am and leaves you stranded in boggy fields in the pitch black of the night.

Most people wouldn’t believe you if you told them there were dragons on the university estate. Yet, if they knew a little more about the reptiles and amphibians next door they might be slightly more convinced. There seems to be a misconception that we don’t have any interesting wildlife in the UK; conservation and biological research are often presented as things you have to go abroad for – and this is precisely why biodiversity literacy is so important. Even the smallest inkling of knowledge about British wildlife can foster a love for the fascinating creatures we have here (yes, even dragons!), an appreciation of their importance and a concern for the ever-increasing risks they face. While it’s true British wildlife is much depleted, there is so much to be found here if you know where to look – be it up a hill, amongst a dry stone wall or in the middle of a marsh at night. You don’t need to step on a plane and emit hundreds of kilos of CO₂ to observe and conserve biodiversity – rather, I’d encourage you to look a bit closer to home. There might be a wyrm lurking right under your nose, down by your feet.

A rather tame common lizard next to my friend Zac’s foot. Photo from Loch Quoich, in the north-west highlands.

In case you were wondering – sadly, we did not find the world serpent. I somewhat doubt we will – but who knows? Thank you very much for reading and indulging me in the slight exaggeration of the grandeur of our (no doubt wonderful) herps. I hope you’ve learnt a thing or two about herp ID (5), an appreciation for how important they are and maybe even a rune as well!

(1)     The runes I use in this blog are those of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. The name ‘futhorc’ comes from the first six characters, in much the same way that ‘alphabet’ is derived from α and β, the first two letters of the Greek ‘alphabet’.

ᚻᚩᚾᛖᛋᛏᛚᛁ, ᛁ ᚻᚪᚠ ᚷᚩᛏ ᛏᚩ ᚦᚪᛏ ᛈᚩᛁᚾᛏ ᛁᚾ ᚦᛖ ᛋᛖᛗᛖᛋᛏᛖᚱ ᚹᛖᚱᛖ ᛁ ᛄᚢᛋᛏ ᚷᚩ ᚪ ᛒᛁᛏ ᚳᚱᚪᛋᛁ. ᚻᛖᛁ, ᛁᛏ ᛁᛋ ᚠᚢᚾ ᚹᚱᛁᛏᛁᛝ ᛁᚾ ᚱᚢᚾᛖᛋ ᚦᚩᚢᚷᚻ! ᚦᛁᛋ ᛁᛋ ᛚᛁᚳᛖ ᚦᛖ ᚾᛖᚱᛞᛁᛖᛋᛏ ᚦᛁᛝ ᛖᚠᛖᚱ :)

(1)     NHP = North Haugh Pond

(2)     QField = the app that the VIPers use to record the species we see on uni-managed land.

(3)     Note: I took all the photos except for the ones of the adder (I’ve only ever seen one) and natterjack toad (which I’ve never seen)! Please excuse the shocking photo quality… Of these, all except those of the great crested newt and slow worm were taken in Scotland.

(4)     If you want to get learn a bit more about herps and how to protect them, check these links out:

·       Information about the frogs and toads, newts, lizards and snakes we have in the UK from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation trust (ARC).

·       How to help herps in your garden - Dragons in your Garden | Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

·       Consider joining a local amphibian and reptile group!

Happy herping!