More than a hundred delegates enjoyed another great AHH / BHS weekend herpetology conference at Drayton Manor Resort on March 21st and 22nd. Now firmly established as a major annual event, the conference attracts increasing numbers of people from outside the UK - this year we welcomed a party of no less than seven delegates from Denmark!

With three speakers from the United States this year - Carl Franklin and Viviana Recardez from Texas Turtles and Rachel Pikstein from Pikstein Labs - the event is now truly international. At one point over the weekend, a group of ten people in the hotel bar included four different nationalities....

Add in speakers, sponsors and organisers and more than a hundred and sixty people were in the venue for both days - giving a great atmosphere and keeping the sponsors area very busy during breaks. Along with the talks, we were delighted to display a number of posters from both UK and US students, highlighting their research topics centred on welfare of reptiles and amphibians in captivity.

Attendees of the Saturday evening event enjoyed a dinner, a great talk from Carl on alligator snapping turtles in Texas plus an entertaining quiz.

On both days, conference delegates had the option to join one of four practical workshops, which many did - the rockwork one with James Dale from Aquatect proving especially popular!

Missed it?

- you can see a short video giving a flavour of the event here 2026 Conference Video

- and a copy of the full program here Conference Program

Huge thanks to all the sponsors, the wonderful speakers and of course the voluntary organising team - without all these people, the event simply couldn't happen....

Keep an eye on the BHS website Events page for confirmation of dates of the 2027 event, when finalised!

In conjunction with our partners ZSL, we're happy to announce that the BHS is funding an important research project focused on the Botsford's leaf-litter frog (Leptobrachella botsfordi)

"Leptobrachella botsfordi is a Critically Endangered species that is endemic to the Hoang Lien Range in northwest Vietnam. The habitat of this species has been severely degraded in Hoang Lien National Park by large scale infrastructural developments for tourism. Evidence of population decline may halt further developments within the protected area."

Key project objectives are:

1. Estimate population size of Leptobrachella botsfordi at three sites
2. Infer population structure (i.e. differentiation and migration between fragments of the population)
3. Understand if the recently discovered population of Leptobrachella botsfordi should be treated as a separate species for conservation management

Project methodology is centred on DNA analysis of previously collected tissue samples.

The Society is contributing £1.7k in project funding after Trustees voted to support the project in December 2025

Photos of intact habitat and Leptobrachella botsfordi copyright Benjamin Tapley, ZSL

UK rewilding is a major and very current topic in relation to many species and taxa. In light of this, the Society has decided to publish a statement explaining our position, particularly in relation to reptiles and amphibians.

The statement can be found here: BHS Rewilding Statement

OK, yes - it's taken us a while !! Certainly longer than we'd have liked, but better late than never.....

We depend on voluntary effort to pull the finished content together from the raw videos and presentations. For the 2023 event, we're very grateful to a BHS member based in the US who put in many hours of time and effort over the last few months to compile the finished videos.

These are now available for viewing by BHS members, via the 'Member's Video Gallery ' drop down - this is visible to members when logged in to the website.

The great talks from the 2023 conference include all the ones below and more. We're currently working on the 2024 and 2025 conference material......

Following another very successful conference in March 2025, planning for the 2026 event is in full swing. The conference - focused on the captive husbandry and breeding of reptiles and amphibians - now attracts private and professional keepers from both the UK and internationally.

Together with hearing a range of high quality talks, delegates have the opportunity to attend workshops and get up to speed on the latest technical innovations in the field, demonstrated by our wide range of attending sponsors, including major brands such as ZooMed, Reptile Systems, Arcadia, Habistat, Exo-Terra and more. And of course the social and networking side is also a major draw for many people !

Here's a short video from the 2025 event : 2025 AHH / BHS Conference

Our speaker program for 2026 is well advanced, including:

Carl Franklin and Viviana Ricardez from Texas Turtles Texas Turtles | TEXAS TURTLES

Rachel Pickstein PiksteinLab

Tom Marriott https://responsibleherpetoculture.foundation/about-us/thomas-marriott

James Dale from Aquatect Aquatect: Custom Aquarium & Fish Tank Builders & Installation

Mike Conabeer from Rattlesnake Canyon https://www.rattlesnakecanyon.org.uk

Daryl Lott (amphibians)

Plus Veterinary talks and more...for the latest info on speakers go here 2026 Conference Speakers

Workshop options include opportunities to put questions to a specialist Vet, explore the importance of light power density in relation to herptiles, construct lighting set ups for smaller cages or get hands on with building rock work backgrounds for vivaria!

Early Bird ticket booking is now open via the conference event page here

2026 AHH / BHS Drayton Manor Conference -Events | British Herpetological Society where you can get full information and see more photos from the 2025 event!

For the first time, the results of an intensive, large scale study of a grass snake (Natrix helvetica) population in Dorset, southern England - carried out between 1958 and 1962 by the naturalist Dr. Robert Stebbings - has been published!

Although publication of the study results was always intended, for a number of reasons it had not been possible - until now !

A collaboration between Dr. Stebbings, Professor Richard Griffiths and Dr. Simon Townson has enabled the remarkable and invaluable study to be finally published as an Open Access special BHS Report:

BHS Reports No. 6 - Special Report | British Herpetological Society

During the course of the study, about 500 grass snakes were individually marked, and data were obtained on seasonal and daily activity, breeding behaviour, egg laying and hatching, feeding, and population characteristics. The population is likely to have comprised about 1,000 snakes that displayed wide-ranging movements over a large area. Indeed, three snakes were observed to move at least 4 km. Large numbers of eggs and hatchlings were collected from a longstanding sawdust heap that appeared to provide the main oviposition site. The data collected correspond with more recent studies, and there is no evidence that grass snakes have markedly shifted their seasonal patterns of behaviour in the 60 years since this research was carried out.

The annual joint BHS and Thames and Chiltern's Herpetological Group Autumn meeting on Sunday 12th October was enjoyed by around 70 people, of all ages and herpetological interests

Amersham 2025 Program

Held in the excellent venue of the Community Centre within the Chilterns Lifestyle Centre, the meeting featured four varied and interesting talks on topics ranging from smooth snake status and conservation in the UK to in situ research on Parson's chameleon in Madagascar. A number of research posters were displayed, along with herpetological photographs and merchandise. The inimitable Professor Mark O'Shea also attended with a couple of tables displaying and selling his ever expanding range of excellent books!

Professor Richard Griffiths presented a talk on the remarkable naturalist Dr.Robert Stebbings - who compiled a tremendous amount of data on a local grass snake population close to where he lived over a period of several years from the end of the 1950s into the start of the 60s. For a number of reasons this potentially very valuable data had never been published or made publicly available - until now! A report on this data has now finally been produced and published as OA on the BHS website - 'Natural History of the Barred Grass Snake Natrix helvetica: Insights from a Study in Southern Britain 1958–1962' BHS Report No 6

It was great to see some younger herpetologists at the meeting - which meant a very wide age range across the attendees, exactly what we hope for when staging this family friendly event. A more detailed report on the meeting will appear in a future edition of the Natterjack, the Society periodic newsletter.

A late News posting but important ....the combined efforts of the BHS and AHH teams resulted in another very successful conference back in March. This has now become firmly established as a major, international event with speakers and delegates typically coming from mainland Europe and the U.S. as well as the UK.

We tried a new format for the conference - tables laid out in the room 'cabaret' style - which was positively received by everyone but does limit the room attendance to 180 maximum.....and we were close to that this year. Overall, the venue facility works very well for us with sponsors having a dedicated , large room adjacent to the main one where the talks take place.

A report on the event is included in the latest Natterjack edition, link here: Natterjack

We were very fortunate to have Jerry Fife from the U.S. as our keynote speaker this year - Jerry gave two great talks and also created a video about the conference which can be seen here: Conference Video

Link to the event program is here: 2024 Conference Program

Huge thanks to all our wonderful speakers and also of course to all our sponsors who helped make the conference possible:

Drayton Manor Resort

ZooMed

ExoTerra

Reptile Systems

Arcadia

Peregrine

PALS

Safe4

Grieg Smith Travels

Reptile Zone

Snakes n Adders

The 2025 Conference is planned for the weekend of March 15th / 16th - the website event page is here: 2025 DM Conference

The organising team are hard at work booking speakers and securing sponorship - details and booking options will be added to the page as soon as they become available - in the meantime, save the date!

We're delighted to have teamed up with Tailored Branding to give BHS members and supporters access to a range of branded clothing items, ensuring they represent the society in style during fieldwork, events, and beyond. From comfortable t-shirts to durable outerwear, members can now show their support for the Society whatever they're doing and wherever they're going!

Link to the Tailored Branding BHS online shop is here: BHS Online Merchandise Shop

What was the British Journal of Herpetology?? Well, it was the precursor to the current BHS Herpetological Journal, published - in six volumes, totalling more than 70 editions - by the Society between 1949 and 1985.

ALL volumes and editions of this historic publication are now available to view or download as open access from the website, here: British Journal of Herpetology

Huge thanks are due to the following people, whose time and effort made this possible :

David Bird, BHS Librarian

Dr. Steve Allain - UK Conservation Officer

Jen Drage of AyeAye Design - BHS website designer and provider

The contents of these publications have never been made available online in full previously, so this is an important step in making the information within the Journals accessible and available.

In 2020, the BHS was pleased to be able to donate £25,000 to help the ARC purchase 50 acres of an important heathland site at Blackmoor in Hampshire.

See the original news article on this here: BHS contribution to Blackmoor purchase

In late 2023, an opportunity arose for ARC to purchase another 26 acres of the site, thereby significantly increasing the protection level. The BHS is delighted to have contributed £10,000 towards the ARC funding target , which has now been reached, so ensuring the additional land purchase can go ahead. This BHS funding has been made possible by a substantial legacy donation received from the late Michael Warburg, which the Society gratefully acknowledges.

From ARC:

`Blackmoor is an area of 41.66 hectares (103 acres) within the Woolmer Forest SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in Hampshire. It is the only part of Woolmer Forest that is in private ownership. In 2019 with donations including one from the BHS, ARC was successful in purchasing 50 acres of the southern end of the site. More recently the landowner has agreed to sell a further 10.5 hectares (26 acres) of the site to ARC. This will enable ARC to own 75% of this important SSSI. The remaining 25% of the SSSI is subject to a 10 year licence agreement between the owner and ARC'

Following a suggestion from Council member Steve Allain , we're very happy to confirm that the BHS is now an official partner with the NBN Atlas . Our intention is that relevant herp location data will be collated periodically from articles in our publications and passed to the Atlas for uploading to their database.

The NBN Atlas is the UK’s largest repository of publicly available biodiversity data.

Early days but this is an exciting new initiative that further deepens and widens the Society links with other , very relevant organisations - along with helping to ensure we contribute as much as we can to critical data collection.

You can read about the NBN Atlas here: NBN Atlas

Delighted that the 2023 Drayton Manor conference on reptile husbandry and breeding was another very successful, now truly international event - with speakers from Europe, the US and even Australia plus delegates from UK, Europe and the US this major annual conference just keeps growing in scope and size. 130 + people were in the conference both days and more than 90 people enjoyed the Saturday evening dinner.

This year - for the first time - we had the benefit of an entire conference facility at the park , with three separate but linked spaces . This worked really well and we plan to continue in the same facility in future - it's already booked for 2024!

We hope to produce a full report on the conference in due course; in addition the talks were all recorded and the edited content will be uploaded to the BHS website in coming weeks and months.

Plenty of pictures and short videos available on both the BHS and AHH Facebook pages - BHS FB , AHH FB

Huge thanks to Drayton Manor Resort and all our sponsors for enabling the event. The 2024 conference is set for the weekend of March 16th and 17th - put it in your diary now!

Many of the talks that were recorded at the 2022 AHH / BHS Conference on reptile husbandry and breeding are now available to view for BHS members.

This page contains information on the videos that have been uploaded and how to access them:

2022 Drayton Manor Conference talks

STUDENT RESEARCH SHOWCASE!

AHH/BHS Student Research Poster Showcase 2023

The event is running over 2 days at Drayton Manor where we invite students to submit their research posters for showcase. These will be displayed for the duration of the conference to enable delegates to read, ask questions and enable students to network. This is a great opportunity to showcase your work to the herpetological community including industry professionals from zoos, researchers and academics from around the globe. Every research student whose poster is accepted for display can attend the Conference free of charge and therefore will NOT have to purchase Conference tickets - however you will still need to book and pay for the Saturday evening dinner if you wish to attend that.

To enter, just download the guidance and ‘Student Research Poster Submission Form’ for more details on format and sending a digital copy of your poster for registration.

We look forward to seeing your research work!

Research Poster Submission Form

Further Guidance for Students

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Like many charities, BHS relies on donations in various forms to fund its activities and meet its aims and objectives. We pride ourselves that our running costs (including the production and distribution of our publications) is covered by membership fees, but with spiralling costs each year there is little left for funding of other important and often unique projects in research and conservation.

BHS has been very fortunate to have been the beneficiary of two large legacies that have boosted our conservation fund and hence our ability to contribute significantly to some important projects.

In January 2019 we heard the sad news that Ronald Ward-Howlett had passed away aged 86. Mr Ward Howlett was a long-standing member of the BHS although we lost contact in recent years when he evidently resided in a nursing home. As a professional he had been in banking and finance, listing herpetology as his main interest.  He sadly died with no known surviving relatives and left a large and complicated estate to three equal beneficiaries: British Herpetological Society, Zoological Society of London and the Linnean Society of London.

In January 2020 we received the legacy from Mr Ward Howlett’s estate, a cheque to the value £36,000.  In May 2021, we received a further legacy payment of £30,000. Executing the estate is complicated by the fact that the owner of the residential home where Mr Ward Howlett died has since been jailed for fraud so there are complicated legal matters which are ongoing.

Another long-standing BHS member, Mr Michael Warburg died in December 2020. Mr Warburg was an engineer in automation technology but had a passion for great crested newts, and in retirement was active with Friends of Chorleywood Common (after founding the organisation in 1990), later becoming its president. He left a legacy of £10,000 to BHS in his will, with an additional gift of £20,000 being added by his surviving wife, Rosemary. We cannot overstate how very grateful we are for the legacies gifted to the Society.

We are saddened by these losses to our membership but humbled by their generosity in passing.  These legacies will be recognised as they are assigned to well deserving causes that meet the Society’s aims and objectives.  Such kind gifts significantly contribute to the conservation of our native reptiles and amphibians, for example with the recent purchase of Blackmoor in Hampshire and Parley Common in Dorset, to which BHS donated £25,000 and £10,000 respectively.

By leaving a bequest to the Society you too can help to secure the future for our native reptiles and amphibians, and contribute to their study and conservation. There has never been a more important moment; the world’s herpetofauna faces threats of unprecedented scale, and only a great deal more work – which inevitably means more money - has any chance of alleviating this situation.  The BHS has the necessary expertise and influence, but only limited funds, to make an impact in this vital area.

A legacy to the BHS is a gift that will live forever.

BHS has generously donated funding towards the purchase of 20 hectares (50acres) of Hampshire heathland to Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) from the BHS Conservation/Land Fund earlier this year. This site at Blackmoor is part of Woolmer Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which is one of the most important areas of heathland in southern England.

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) are seeking to raise £206,000 to enable purchase of an additional 19 hectares of Parley Common - important lowland heathland in Dorset.  The BHS has pledged £10,000 towards the target!    Successful purchase of this acreage would increase the area of Parley Common owned by ARC to almost 20% of the total site area - thereby safeguarding an area of heathland on the site in perpetuity.  

Thanks to the efforts of our Secretary Trevor Rose and Website Developer Jen Drage,  ALL  editions of The Herpetological Bulletin  from the very first one dated Summer 1980 to current are now uploaded as PDFs and available on the Bulletin page.   This represents a real achievement and provides a fantastic historical resource.   All editions apart from the latest four are flagged as open access in line with our policies in this area.   

For the first time in many years (possibly since the Society was first formed)  we have regretfully decided that cancelling the 2020 AGM - scheduled for April 25th - is the only sensible course of action given the unprecedented coronavirus situation. 

We very much hope all BHS members and other users of the site are able to stay safe and well  in the coming weeks and months. 

At this point we hope that the planned Amersham meeting on September 6th - annual joint meeting with Thames and Chilterns Herpetological Group - will be able to go ahead (see separate event entry for details) but will of course be monitoring the situation in coming months.

Trevor Rose - our Society Secretary and developer of amphibian ladders as a solution to avoid the needless deaths of countless amphibians in drains and similar traps - recently travelled by invitation to South Korea to explore and promote the idea of the ladders being used there. Read more here: Going Global!

BHS Council have agreed to donate £25,000 from the land fund towards the total £250,000 target which, if reached, will  enable ARC to purchase 50 acres of Blackmoor in Hampshire - an important heathland habitat for herptiles.

The BHS funds will be made available to ARC when the pledge and donation target is achieved.

For more details of the site and ARC appeal, please click here: ARC Blackmoor Appeal

The recent 2019 joint AHH / BHS / IHS conference held at Drayton Manor Park  was another great success, with both the Saturday workshops and Sunday conference well attended.  Delegates enjoyed a range of varied, informative and often entertaining talks from our excellent speakers, along with great opportunities for meeting up and sharing experiences and information during the breaks.

We would like to once again extend our grateful thanks to Drayton Manor Park for kindly hosting the conference and their great support during planning and the weekend itself.  Particular thanks to the park Zoo Manager, Chris Mitchell  and Conference and Events manager, Melissa Penn.

A full report of the conference will appear in a future edition of our newsletter, The Natterjack. 

The paper on declining adder populations in the UK ( published in HJ , Vol  29 Number 1)  has received  national coverage both in newspapers - Guardian, Times , Telegraph, Daily Express  - and on radio.   A summary of the study findings has also just been published in Science, both in the online and printed magazine editions.

The paper has been published in the HJ as open access, so can be viewed or downloaded here: Adder population decline in the UK

The Science article can be seen here : Science magazine

Booking facility is now open for what promises to be another great 2 days of workshops and conference - please navigate to the event entries on the website home page to book on!