New arrivals - who knew we had these living wild in Britain?

We have some new arrivals to our animal ambassador team, and how cool are they! Snappy and Stinger are incredible arachnids that many people don’t realise can be found in Britain.

Yellow-tailed scorpions (Euscorpius flavicaudis) are native to Southern Europe and Northwest Africa. However there is a population of them here in Britain of approximately 10,000-15,000 strong at Sheerness docks having been introduced on shipments during the 1800s.

This species is harmless to humans with a very mild sting which they rarely use. Their main weapons are their pincers. You can see in the first photo how Snappy’s exoskeleton is fluorescing, which is the effect UV light has on scorpions. This makes them very easy to spot in the dark if you’re armed with a UV torch!