Common or Garden Sightings

We are inviting the public to record their sightings of some key species

We are giving you six new Common or Garden species to record! Once again, we need your help to record six common, but under-recorded species that you may see around West Wales.

Have you seen these species?

European Rabbit © S. Rees

Garden Snail © Yusef Samari

European Mole © Laura Moss

Green Cellar Slug © Alison Rees

Hedgehog © Lyndsey Maiden

Garden Spider © Annie Haycock

Scroll down for more information!

View Sightings Already Recorded

European Rabbit

Everyone can identify the European Rabbit, but it is surprisingly under recorded! They can be found in urban areas and gardens, deciduous woodland, grassland, mixed woodland, and arable land.

Rabbits eat a wide range of plants including grasses, cereal crops, root vegetables and young shoots of meadow plants. They will eat tree bark especially when snow covers other food sources.

Field Signs

Footprints: Tracks can be seen in mud and sand, but often easiest to identify in snow, as seen in the photo. Rabbit footprints are similar to hare, but smaller in size. Four pads on both fore and hind feet. Hind feet are often an elongated slipper shaped impression. Width 2.5cm, length 3.5cm.

Droppings: Droppings are often found in grassland habitats, field edges and hedgerows. May be found in dense collection of pellets on prominent feature (e.g. anthill). 10mm in diameter. Colour: yellowish brown-green. Smell: Sweet smelling, like a damp digestive biscuit with a hint of mown hay.

Click here to see an interactive map of Rabbit records in Wales, only 3,184 records in West Wales! 

Garden Snail

The Garden Snail is extremely under-recorded in West Wales!

The adult bears a hard, thin calcareous shell 25–40mm in diameter and 25–35mm high, with four or five whorls. The shell is variable in colour, but generally it has a reticulated pattern of dark brown, brownish-golden, or chestnut with yellow stripes, flecks, or streaks (characteristically interrupted brown colour bands). The aperture is large and characteristically oblique, its margin in adults is whitish and reflected.

The body is soft and slimy, brownish-grey, and able to be retracted entirely into the shell, which the animal does when inactive or threatened.

Click here to see an interactive map of Garden Snail records in Wales, only 144 records for West Wales!

European Mole

Moles have short usually black velvety fur, with spade-like forelimbs with large claws that face towards the rear of the animal. Pink fleshy snout and tiny eyes. They are present in most habitats where the soil is deep enough to allow tunnelling but are uncommon in coniferous forests, on moorlands and in sand dunes, probably because their prey is scarce.

Moles spend almost all their lives underground in a system of permanent and semi-permanent tunnels. Surface tunnels are usually short-lived and occur in newly cultivated fields, in areas of light sandy soil and in very shallow soils, where prey is concentrated just below the surface.

Field Signs

Molehills: Molehills are the characteristic and easy to recognise field sign to record the presence of moles. Molehills consist of pure loose soil. When moles dig, they push the loosened soil up a shaft to the surface, forming piles of earth. These molehills are easy to spot and indicate the presence of moles. Moles use molehills as a food source, especially for earthworms and insects.

Click here to see an interactive map of Mole records in Wales, only 4,556 records for West Wales!

Green Cellar Slug

The Green Cellar slug is one of two cellar slug species (the other being the Yellow Cellar Slug), both these slug species are known to be detritivores, feeding on decaying plant material in gardens. They are not considered plant pests as they do not feed on live plant material.

The Green Cellar slug has green-yellow bodies and blue/grey tentacles. The difference between the Green and Yellow Cellar Slug is that the Yellow species has a long yellow stripe along the middle of its tail, this is shorter or absent on the Green Cellar Slug. The Green Cellar Slug also secretes a clear yellow slime. For more information see here.

Both cellar slug species are highly nocturnal, which is why we ask you to look for them after dark when the slugs are active. You can also find these sociable species resting underneath logs, paving, in drains and under other objects during the day. Here they form characteristic ‘huddles’ thought to help conserve moisture. You may find both cellar slug species in the same huddle!

Click here to see an interactive map of Green Cellar Slug records in Wales, there are only 14 records in West Wales!

Hedgehog

The hedgehog is common in parks, gardens and farmland throughout mainland Britain and Ireland. They prefer woodland edges, hedgerows and suburban habitats where there is plenty of food for them. Intensively farmed arable land is probably a poor habitat, as are moor lands and dense conifer forests.

Field Signs

Footprints: Hedgehog tracks are best identified by using a footprint tunnel. They are five-toed, with a sharp claw on the end. They are 28mm in width and 25mm in length. To record footprints, a tunnel can be placed alongside hedgerows and in gardens. A footprint guide and protocol are both available from The Mammal Society.

Droppings: They can be found in grassland and farmland, and in people’s gardens. They are crinkly, often studded with shiny fragments due to their diet of insects. Variable size, 15-50mm long, 8-10mm thick. Colour: blue-black. Smell: Sweet, hint of linseed oil.

Click here to see an interactive map of Hedgehog records in Wales, only 3,449 records in West Wales!

Garden Spider

The Garden spider is one of the more easily recognised spiders. It is usually grey-brown or reddish-brown in colour, with a large white cross (made up of pale spots and streaks) on its abdomen. Females are twice the size of males.

Garden spiders are the most common orb web spider in the UK often found in gardens, giving them their name! They sit in the middle of the web waiting to feel the vibrations of a struggling insect in the sticky threads of its web. They then rush out and wrap their prey tightly in silk to stop them from moving – finishing the job with a venomous bite (which is harmless to humans)!

Click here to see an interactive map of Garden Spider records in Wales, only 356 records in West Wales!