Strange record worthy of further investigation

An interesting and slightly bizarre sighting was received by FARG this morning of a chance encounter of a ???.

A worker was caught short out in the wilds of Fylde and had to ‘disappear’ behind a bush for two minutes. On his return he regaled a tale of a ‘dark snake-like animal’ about 15 inches (40cm) long and as thick as his finger to his supervisor.

We would guess that he didn’t think/believe it was a snake as they are unheard of round these parts by the general public.

So what was it? The contenders are:-

·        A Grass Snake – there have been records in this area but not for 30 years or so

·        An Adder – unknown in this area

·        A Slow Worm – too big, but perhaps our observer was exaggerating or mistaken

·        An Eel – maybe, the area it was seen is close to a wetland site and it could have been travelling from one water body to another even though it was daytime and there hadn’t been any significant rain for almost 24 hours.

·        Something escaped/released from captivity

What to do next? In an attempt to verify the record the site managers have laid some refugia around the area of the sighting, with a bit of luck the creature in question will give itself up for identification – fingers crossed it is what we hope it is.