Good news!  The Reptiles and Amphibians of the UK website which has been an invaluable resource for herpetologists over recent years has been relaunched and what follows is a press release from Chris Davis who has taken ownership of the site.


"Many of you, like me, were extremely disappointed to log on to RAUK and find that it had vanished. Sadly, the work involved in the administration and maintenance of the site together with the related costs meant that Gemma had to finally surrender the reins.

Unfortunately, at that time, on-one had come forward to take over the responsibility. Since then I have been liaising with Gemma firstly to assess the practicality of me doing so and secondly, having established this, the huge amount of work which was necessary to transfer the site to a new server.

Yet again, demonstrating how much Gemma wanted to see the site resurrected, she, as well as me, put a great deal of work into its transfer into new ownership.
RAUK has now been in existence for about 6 years and throughout that time has grown to be an invaluable resource for all of those involved in the herpetological conservation movement and, indeed, any others who share our love for our wonderful herpetofauna in the wild. I am extremely proud that Gemma adjudged me fit to take over the reins from her.

So far as the future is concerned there are no plans for significant changes to RAUK. It will continue to run as a wholly independent online resource where you can discuss our herpetofauna in the forum and use the other resources such as the identification pages.

Gemma has done a superb job over many years and we all owe a debt of immeasurable gratitude to her. You will find a new thread on that subject and I hope you will ALL join me in expressing your appreciation of her efforts. I am pleased to say that she will continue to be an active member of this forum and will retain administrator access as an occasional moderator."