'In June 2010 I was asked to join the captive sand lizard breeding program. It was felt the amount of Merseyside animals being bred for release needed to be raised due to the large number of receptor sites. During the summer months I monitored the levels and positions of the sun in my back garden to establish the best position to build an outdoor vivarium. Ideally this would be a south / southeast facing part of the garden with the maximum hours of sunshine available. The best spot was found but the surrounding vegetation needed a bit of a haircut.

  

The enclosure was built to mimic as closely as possible an existing vivarium being used by a current member of the program. Based in the Lake District he has a great success rate working within the guidelines of the Captive Husbandry manual.

The next consideration after location is the size, biggest is best. The largest size possible was 12 ft. long x 5 ft. deep by 4 ft. high with a further 2 ft. being below ground level.

I started building the vivarium in February 2011and dug a hole to the above dimensions 2 ft. deep. This was filled with gravel 6 “ deep and then a breeze block wall was built to 4 ft. above ground level on 3 sides with the front being 1 ft. above ground level. Hard-core was then added to a general depth of 12” and additional contours were made to enable sand banks to be created. Sand was taken from the dunes at Blackpool airport along with marram and lyme-grass and habitat was created as close as possible to that found in a dune system. 8” wide plastic cladding was added to the top section inside the walls to prevent the animals escaping and the top and front of the enclosure was made safe from predators with 1“ x ½ “ mesh, there is a door at the front for access........

Read more on rearing sand lizards on FARG's blog

SAND LIZARD BREEDING PROGRAMME.

The Sand Lizard Recovery Programme is lead by Amphibian & Reptile Conservation who employ a band of dedicated people who breed and rear on sand lizards in special enclosures to bring back the wonderful sand lizard to its former range and introduced to further sites to help conserve this wonderful jewel in the UK's herpetofauna. It is one of the most successful reintroduction projects in the world. Many organisations are involved including the British Herpetological Society, Chester Zoo, Marwell Zoological Park, and many others. 

You too can help by donating to Amphibian & Reptile Conservation so that they can keep this important conservation project going well into the future. We would also encourage people to go and contact your local ARG to also help with local conservation on the ground