OAK BAY NEWS (British Columbia) 14 October 10 Lizards flourish in region’s climateThey came as stowaways and now they’re crawling in backyards all over the South Island.
Since the early 1970s the invasive European wall lizard has made its way south from the Saanich Peninsula. Now they’re turning up in backyards in Fairfield.
“Locals are often confusing the little guys as native northwestern alligator lizards, who are similar in size, as well as geckos,” said Gavin Hanke, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Royal British Columbia Museum. “I get a lot of reports – people call in and ask if it’s a gecko.”
Wall lizards vary from 16 to 23 centimetres in length. Males are black with green polka dots, females are a little smaller and are coppery with a little green colouring.
The wall lizards are native to Italy, but thrive across Northern Europe, said University of Victoria biology professor Patrick Gregory.
Because wall lizards lay two clutches of eggs per year – alligator lizards produce one clutch annually – they’ve spread fast, he said.
The wall lizard’s origins here began when a private zoo on the Saanich Peninsula closed in 1970s. Since then, he said, a handful of studies have tracked their movement.
The wall lizards are so widely spaced in their pockets of residency, there have been suggestions they’ve been assisted, Gregory said.
“They’ve likely spread on their own in short movements, though they may be hitching rides on vehicles, like horse trailers, for example, but nothing has been confirmed.”
There’s also a chance people may be helping the spread by capture and release.
While Gregory was part of initial research on the lizards, he hasn’t focused on them lately. But their presence in and around homes has prompted Hanke to learn about them.
“I found a male and female living in a creek that runs behind the Fisheries and Oceans building on Commerce Circle (in Saanich),” he said.
Many people are surprised to learn of the native alligator lizard’s existence, because the reptiles tend to shy away from cities. But wall lizards do very well around human disturbance, Hanke said. It’s also hard to know if the wall lizard is competing with its native counterpart.
One thing Hanke urges to anyone who feels the lizards are a pest is to be fair in their removal.
“If you’re going to put them down, (do it) properly, not just with sticky traps that force them to suffer.”
Lizard tales
• Thousands of wall lizards are living here. In some local yards you can see a couple hundred. The same species is doing well in Cincinnati and Kentucky and lizards from the same family are popping up in New York and Kansas.
• Royal B.C. Museum curator of vertebrate zoology, Gavin Hanke, has found many wall lizards with damaged tails. “They’ve dropped and re-grown them, so something is chasing them. The tail comes back shorter, a different pattern of scales. Normally it’s an intricate pattern, but the new one has bold stripes and is different.”
• Native alligator lizards are on the mainland and on the coast as well, but unless you have a wild yard they’ll avoid it. Native lizards don’t like most pampered gardens – or cats.
Lizards flourish in region’s climate