Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About 4-5 Months ago I was flipping over wood in eastern WA and found a BIG Alligator Lizard. She was very calm and I thought it was because she was cold from the weather, After a few hours the sun came out and it got hot inside the cage I had her and a baby garter snake in. I was away at the time but hurried back to get her and the snake out of the sun and she was killing it! rolling with its head in her mouth and just killing it, by the time I got it away from her it was already dead and half the face was torn up on the snake.

I thought she just couldnt be with other snakes, and when i put her with the other 6 Ally's she was fine... then I went back to Australia, She went BALLISTIC, killed 2 of them and bit her own tail off, I removed her from the others and she always was aggressive still. But I kept her thinking it was our weather.

Now back in Seattle, still crazy, still a killer. And im not sure why. Im afraid that she will kill any other animal with her, and how she deals with the Crickets... it wouldnt be pretty.

-Any thoughts on why?

My guess is that it percieved the snake as a threat and attacked out of fear.

She may also be a he. Males can behave aggressivly towards one another and it is possible that the smaller lizards were also males. Also, if they get hungry larger lizards will often attack smaller ones which is why only same sized individuals should be housed together.

As for your al biting its own tail off, that is highly unlikely. It was probably bitten by one of the als it killed during the struggle.

-Alice

I am pretty sure her...or him, bite its tail off, it wasnt on a day when the others were killed, and it did have its tail in its mouth.

As for lizards its own size there was one pretty close to its size, and attacked it.

-Well its alone now alone, so i guess I dont have to worry... but jeeze so agressive and mean, it sometimes chases my hand when i move things in the tank.

...really fat too, 3 times the girth of the others

Unfortunately I'm not sure "why" but I have seen similar behavior in Northern Alley's. I've successfully raised (at least to maturity) 2 clutches of Alligator Lizards (11 total). And young ones always seem to get along great, but as they mature they begin feuding and establishing heriearcy. One lizard in particular "Lucifer" as we dubbed him, was always provoking fights. Unfortunately for him he wasn't very good at fighting and he would frequently get his butt kicked. I would separate him from the general population for a while but he would become listless, quit eating, and generally look unwell. So I would return him to the main Alligator cage and within a few days he was picking and losing fights again. Over about a years time I tried everything to get Lucifer a cage mate, but nothing worked. I tried multiple combinations of females and non aggressive males and it always ended in a fight, Lucifer always the aggressor but not always the winner. After watching him become more and more hostile towards lizards and people, and appearing to be going crazy from solitary confinement, I finally gave up on him and released him in a nice wooded yard (the one I caught his mother in originally). I've had up to 15 Alligator Lizards in the past 3 years and Lucifer is the only one, which was so evil. I still don't know why, but I tend to think he suffered from a neurological disease of some kind that caused him to have fits of rage. He was slightly smaller than his brothers and sisters but always full of rage. We called it "Short Mans Disease" lizard style.