Meet Reuben Martin - David Streeter Wildlife Champion

We are delighted to announce that this year’s David Streeter Wildlife Champion Award goes to Reuben Martin, a remarkable young conservationist whose dedication to protecting reptiles and amphibians in Sussex is truly inspiring.

For the past three years, Reuben has spent nearly all of his spare time monitoring reptiles and amphibians across eight nature reserves in Sussex as part of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust’s National Survey Programme. His data directly supports ARC in tracking populations and trends, and helps land managers and rangers improve their habitat management plans — particularly for these often-overlooked species.

We caught up with him to find out more.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a 16 year old volunteer reptile surveyor for ARC (Amphibian Reptile Conservation Trust).  I’m passionate about the conservation of our often misunderstood reptile and amphibian species. I’ve just started my A-Levels too, Environmental Science is definitely my favourite subject!

When and why did you develop an interest in amphibians and reptiles?

I’ve been fascinated with them for as long as I can remember to be honest! My dad, who joins me on all my surveys now, used to take me to the woods to find newts, and we had a pond in our garden with Frogs. I’ve also grown up in an area with non-native Wall Lizards absolutely everywhere, even in my garden, so that definitely gave me an interest in reptiles.

What is so important about helping land managers improve their habitats for reptiles?

For me, this is the most important part of surveying for reptiles. Each year, we provide land managers with maps of their site, showing all the sightings of reptiles and the approximate location they were found. This allows for us to first identify strongholds, but also areas that can be improved, allowing us to advise land managers on how they can maintain the areas with good reptile populations, and how to improve weak areas and increase connectivity and reptile territories, overall allowing for potentially a higher number of reptiles on site. 

We find that reptiles are often neglected during habitat management if they are not surveyed, as they are so elusive and secretive. Without knowing what areas they are present in, entire parts of perfect reptile habitat are often cut, or allowed to overgrow. By giving advice to land managers, they can take our advice and form a habitat management plan that takes reptiles into account properly, creating a landscape which finds a balance of benefiting reptiles, and all other species.

Do you have a favourite species?

The Adder is definitely my favourite reptile species - it is absolutely stunning, and its behaviours are fascinating too, such as the male Adder combat in spring. They’re also a species which really needs us to spread the good word about them, as they are so misunderstood. People often think of them as aggressive creatures, when in reality I’ve seen hundreds and never had one strike at me. They are never aggressive, only becoming defensive if they feel in danger. They are also arguably our current fastest declining reptile in the UK, and in real need of conservation countrywide.

Do you have a reptile fact people might not know?

A bit of a sad fact, but the “Common” Lizard is becoming quite the opposite of common. Its habitats are becoming fragmented, and numbers are declining. I prefer now to call them their other name, Viviparous Lizards, as the name Common Lizard can somewhat ignore how poor their situation countrywide currently is, and can also show the public that it is in fact getting this bad, to the point where species that were once named “Common” are no longer that at all, which may perhaps help educate the public.

What do you hope to do after A-Levels and beyond?

The goal in the end is to have a career in the conservation of our native reptile and amphibian species. These are some of the most beautiful animals we have in the UK, and their numbers are declining fast. It would be tragic to have these species absent from our countryside in the future, so I will do what I can to help conserve them.

What’s your favourite wild space in Sussex?

For me it has to be the Knepp Rewilding Estate, which I’m lucky enough to be surveying for reptiles. It’s an absolutely massive site of amazing habitats, which is full of incredible creatures - my favourites that we regularly see there being Kingfishers, Grass Snakes of course, and the various raptor species which glide over our heads while we survey, such as Peregrine Falcon, Red Kites, and Hobby. I would love to find some Viviparous Lizards or Adders there in the future, although none yet on our surveys.