CONTRA COSTA TIMES (California) 27 April 04 Apparent 'attack' is really just a lizard menage a trios (Gary Bogue)
Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.
-- Russell Hoban
Dear Gary:
We had a bizarre event on our patio last week. On Sunday afternoon I looked out the glass patio door and saw something that looked like a rag on the patio. I went out to investigate or pick it up, but it wasn't a rag!
It was three lizards. One was about 8 inches long. Two other slightly smaller ones had their jaws clamped around his neck from each side. They were there on the patio very still. I nudged them with my toe and one moved slightly. I nudged them again and another moved. I called the family out to view this weird sight and their first reaction -- as was mine -- was "are they alive?"
I nudged them again and they took a few steps, including the middle lizard. We watched for a few minutes. They took another step or two and then walked -- I couldn't say scurried -- off into the bushes. But several hours later I saw them again by the patio door -- still in that amazing configuration, and the beleaguered middle one seemed energized!
Can you imagine how two lizards would happen to attack a third simultaneously, or why they would hang on for so long?
Ruth O'Neil, Vista
Dear Ruth:
The two smaller lizards, alligator lizards actually, weren't really "attacking" the larger lizard. They were trying to breed with her.
Alligator lizards will often mate for up to 24 hours, with the male holding onto the female by biting the side of her neck. Occasionally, several males will encounter a female at the same time, resulting in the unusual scene you discovered on your back patio Sunday afternoon.
A few years ago, a gentleman in Clayton sent me a photograph of three male alligator lizards hanging onto a female's neck under similar circumstances.
Alligator lizards are pretty common, so I assume your lizards eventually worked things out amicably with the female so she could lay her eggs someplace in your garden, and then go get a neck massage.
Apparent 'attack' is really just a lizard menage a trios