A wild snake has been caught on camera near a Swindon suburb. 

The resident who recorded it, who wished not to be named, was walking on scrubland between Tadpole Garden Village and the River Ray on April 11.

During their walk, they happened upon what they believed was a grass snake. 

They were able to capture the encounter on video which showed the snake up close before it appeared to get startled and slinked off into the taller grass nearby. 

There are only three types of snakes native to the UK - an adder, a grass snake and a smooth snake.

An interactive map published in 2023 showed the number of snake sightings in and around the UK for that year.

The data had been pulled from a collaborative exercise from the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK (ARG UK) and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation to collect data on native reptiles and amphibian populations and make that data publicly available

Thankfully for those scared of snakes who may see the video and think Tadpole Garden Village is no longer a safe space, the data for 2023 showed Swindon and Wiltshire as a black hole for snake populations, with almost no sightings reported for the area. 

But grass snakes, which are completely harmless to people, are known to live in the area, and in fact, one was spotted in suburban Highworth in 2022. 

Swindon Advertiser: One surprised pedestrian spotted the reptile slithering along Pentylands Lane and snared a snap of it on social media to find out whether it was an unusually large grass snake or an adder.

At the time, some commenters welcomed the sight of the slippery specimen, calling it "lovely" and "beautiful", while others were shocked and pledged to stay away from the area just in case there were other snakes of a similar size.

A couple of Facebook users mentioned they had often seen snakes around Pentylands - but never noticed one that big before.