ROCKY & FIONA - Western Fence Lizards

ROCKY & FIONA

Western Fence Lizards (Male& Female)

Sceloporus undulatus

The lighter looking one on the left is Rocky (Male) and the darker looking one on the right is Fiona (Female). We caught Rocky outside our home one day and I paid a little girl $20 to catch me a female and she caught Fiona. I could of caught a female if I wanted to but I really didn't have the time to go out and do it myself so I figured I'd give a this little girl an incentive to go out and interact with her environment. These guys are found in the western part of the United States and you can typically find them sun bathing on the side of walls or on fences. Hence their name, western fence lizard. I don't know the exact age of these two but if I were to guess, because they didn't breed this last season, would be 1 1/2 to 2 years old now.

 

It's easy to identify them they are small and very common in southern California. They are called blue bellies because of the blue lines that run down their bellies. They also tend to have a patch of blue on their throat.Since they are classified as a spiny lizard, their scales are more rough looking and feeling than some other lizards.

 

Length: 6- 9 in. 

Life Span: 5+ years.

 

 Food: They are insectivorous. When captured, it is best to give them viitamin and calcium fortified crickets (to avoid metabolic bone disease, MBD), grasshoppers, wax worms, etc. 

 

 Sexing: With these lizards it can be moderately easy to identify these as a male or a female. For starters, males tend to have more blues on them, you can't see it in this picture, but Rocky has deeper blues on his belly with a little bit of black. If you look closely his throat is shaded with more blue. When he's been in the sun the whole day, his back gets turquoise dots running along his back (you can see faintly in this picture). His tail is also wider at the base and from his underside you will find that he has enlarged post anal scales.

 

The Cure for Lyme Disease:

 Even with these guys being completely harmless, may not be intimidating by any means to any animals other than insects, these guys play a big part in keeping the environment healthy. Studies have shown that Lyme disease is lower in the areas wear these lizards can be found inhabiting. Why? because these little guys have contain a protein in their blood that kills the bactierium that is associated with Lyme disease. How this happens, is when a tick, infected with the disease, latches on to the the lizard, it injests the lizard's blood which effectively rids the tick's blood of the disease and can no longer carry and transmit the disease to another host when it is done feeding on the lizard. 

 

Mating: This takes place during early spring, but they will not mate until at least 2 years of age. The males as a display to females will do "push ups", bob their heads up and down, and puff out their thoat to display their blue throat. Males will also do this towards other males as a sign of dominance and to defend their territory. 

 

 

Defenses: The only defenses these lizards have is to run at fast speeds and can drop it's tail as a diversion for the predator. The lizard will eventually regenerate the tail but it will never look the same.