Slow worm
Anguis fragilis
The slow worm is a legless lizard belonging to the family Anguidae, often mistaken for a snake. It features smooth, shiny scales and has the ability to shed its tail to escape predators. Its body is typically grey, brown, or copper-colored, with females often displaying dark flanks and a vertebral stripe. It prefers semi-open habitats such as forest edges, gardens, and meadows with ample hiding spots.
Details
Identification
Legless body, smooth scales, movable eyelids (unlike snakes), autotomous tail.
Social behavior
Solitary, but often uses communal hibernation sites with several individuals.
Diet
Feeds mainly on slugs, earthworms, hairless caterpillars, and spiders.
Hunting strategy
Slow searching and grabbing prey with small, backward-curved teeth.
Overwintering
Hibernation in frost-free burrows, under tree stumps, or in compost heaps.
Ecology
Ecological role
Important predator of small invertebrates; specifically regulates slug populations.
Natural predators
Birds of prey, martens, hedgehogs, snakes (e.g., smooth snake), and domestic cats.
Competitor species
Other insectivorous reptiles and amphibians such as the sand lizard.
Ecosystem service
Natural pest control in gardens and agriculture by consuming slugs.
Threats
Habitat loss, intensive agriculture, use of pesticides (slug pellets), and domestic cats.
Scientific profile
Profile
Distinguishing features
Legless lizard (not a snake); possesses movable, closable eyelids; visible ear openings (often small); the tail can be shed at predetermined breaking points when threatened (autotomy); the tongue is notched but not deeply forked like in snakes.
Habitat
Euryoecious species; prefers structurally diverse habitats with moderate humidity such as forest edges, open woodlands, bogs, heathlands, fallow land, railway embankments, and semi-natural gardens or parks with dense herbaceous layers and hiding spots.
Diet
Specialized predator of slow-moving invertebrates, primarily slugs and earthworms; also hairless caterpillars, woodlice, and spiders.
Role in food web
Important regulator of slug populations; serves as a prey base for numerous predators of higher trophic levels.
Protection & threats
Main threats
Intensification of agriculture and forestry, habitat loss due to land consolidation, use of pesticides (especially molluscicides), predation by free-ranging domestic cats, and road mortality.
Population trend
Still widespread and common in Germany, but regionally declining due to habitat fragmentation; listed on the near-threatened/preliminary warning list of the Red List.
Conservation measures
Preservation and networking of ecotones; creation of log and stone piles; avoidance of molluscicides in gardens; promotion of extensive meadow management.