A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Lizard Behavior and Natural History

Click on a picture for a larger view

Territorial Displays	Male Combat	Interactions	Miscellaneous
Breeding Season	Male Coloring	Tail Loss	Hunting and Feeding
Movement	Predators	Global Travel	Tracks

These are pictures and videos that illustrate interesting behaviors and features of some of the lizards shown throughout this web site. Follow the links on the name of each species to find more pictures and information about it. I will keep adding pictures as I get them.
Territorial Displays
Many male lizards stand up high on their legs and arch their back to show their territorial dominance to other lizards or to anyone who comes near them. Then they often raise and lower their body as if they are doing push-ups. This display shows off the bright coloring on their throats and sides, if they have it, and shows that they are in prime physical condition, and not to be messed with. Females also do push-ups.

This short video shows some Yellow-backed Spiny Lizards in territorial poses and doing push-up displays.	An adult male Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard territorial display.	I was very close to this female Baja California Brush Lizard for about fifteen minutes while she basked on a rock. She tolerated my movements around the rock to photograph her. Then she moved away from me to a smaller rock and did a a push-up display. After that, she moved again and displayed again. I don't think the displays were for my benefit. They may have been aimed at other lizards nearby that I did not see.	This video shows a male Western Sagebrush Lizard in Contra Costa County running between rocks, then stopping to do a push-up display.

A Northern Desert Iguana darts around and does a short territorial push-up display for my benefit.	In this video, a Common Chuckwalla emerges from its crevice and does a territorial push-up display. Even lizards hate paparazzi....	A beautiful adult male Chihuahuan Greater Earless Lizard shows off his bright colors.	An adult male Kashmiri Rock Agama demonstrates who is the king of No Bikini Beach on the Ganges.

Puerto Rican Crested Anole	Northern Green Anole	Southern Green Anole	Cuban Brown Anole

Northern Green Anole	Cuban Brown Anole	Cuban Brown Anole	Bark Anole
An adult male lizard of the Anole family will raise his head up and distend a colorful fold of loose skin on his throat called a dewlap to warn other lizards of his presence and to claim his territory. This is typically done several times in a row. If a nearby male does not leave the area, one of them usually runs up to the other one and they start to bite and chase each other until one of them leaves. The species of an anole can also be identified by the color of the distended dewlap.

An adult male Texas Spiny Lizard displays his awesomeness on a tree.	In this video, a male Northwestern Fence Lizard defecates off the side of a Butte County fence, wipes himself off, then does a territorial push-up display. Whether it was aimed at me or not, I got the message...
Male Combat
Male teritorial fights can include territorial displays, push-ups, serious chasing and some nasty biting. I have received a few pictures of alligator lizards biting the head of another lizard, but none of the photographers stayed around long enough to see if any harm came to the loser.

Two adult male Great Basin Fence Lizards fighting. © Jason Rojas		Two adult male Baja California Brush Lizards in combat, displaying their bright throat and ventral colors.These lizards were observed chasing and biting each other. Bite marks are visible on the tail of the lizard on the left.

Sometimes an anole's distended dewlap display warning does not work, as you can see with the Cuban Brown Anole shown in the left two pictures. Seeing another male nearby, he raised himself up and distended his dewlap, but the second male lizard attacked him anyway. They fought for a moment, which you can see in the pictures on the right, until the first male ran away.

A male Plateau Fence Lizard moves up the branch where another male is sitting (left). They begin fighting and leap about six feet to the ground (center). The loser runs away and the victor returns to his original location on the branch. The video on the right shows some of the fight after they hit the ground, and the victor after he returned to the branch and did some victory push-ups.
Miscellaneous Lizard Observations

When annoyed, Gila Monsters, like this captive Banded Gila Monster, open their mouth and make a loud hissing sound. You can hear this Gila Monster hissing here.	A Reticulate Gila Monster flicks its wide forked tongue to sense its surroundings.	This video shows Western Zebra-tailed Lizards waving their striped tails to divert attention away from their body, running off quickly, and doing a territorial push-up display.	California Legless Lizards live in loose soil and sand, where legs would only get in the way. This video shows how one moves on a hard surface, and then how quickly one of these snake-like lizards can burrow down into loose soil.

This video shows several Northern Desert Iguanas in the Colorado Desert, including one emerging from it's hiding hole.	This video shows the excellent camouflage of a tiny Round-tailed Horned Lizard. Its color and shape allow it to blend in with the rocks on the ground. These lizards can also run away quickly when needed, as you can also see here.	Lizards hide in holes, cracks, and under rocks and other objects. These pictures show where a Variegated Skink hid itself under a rock.

Like this juvenile Southern Desert Horned Lizard, when they feel threatened, horned lizards will sometimes squirt blood from the corners of their eyes to scare away predators. The blood has been found to be very distasteful to some animals, causing them to drop the lizards without eating them. © Geoff Fangerow .	Long-tailed Brush Lizards are very well camouflaged when they align their bodies on a branch and remain motionless inside a shrub, as you can see in the picture on the left and the video on the right.		This short video shows the desert habitat of a Common Chuckwalla, then zooms in on the cryptic lizard, in a typical pose for a Chuckwalla or any lizard, basking high on top of a rock.

Many lizards change their color depending on their temperature. Some can match the color of their surroundings. These pictures show the same Mediterranean House Gecko, first in its dark phase when it was discovered under a rock in an ice storm, and second, after it had warmed up inside the house.		This picture shows the amazing climbing abilities of a Mediterranean House Gecko, as it climbs up a glass window.	Texas Spotted Whiptail showing its tongue.

These two pictures show the same male Green Anole. Less than a minute after the picture on the left was taken (after he finished displaying his colorful throat dewlap, he changed his body color from green to brown. This is why some people call these lizards Chameleons.		This adult male Coast Range Fence Lizard has several ticks on the side of its head. A protein in the blood of the Western Fence Lizard kills the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Bacteria carried by a tick that bites a lizard are destroyed as the tick ingests the lizard's blood. More Info.	Some lizards can excrete excess salts through their nostrils, like this Coast Range Fence Lizard. © Guntram Deichsel

These pictures all show the same female Jackson's Chameleon over a period of about 20 minutes. Chameleons such as Jackson's change their color to match their surroundings.			This Texas Greater Earless Lizard waves its barred tail to show its underside in order to distract a pursuer. It it is grabbed by a predator, the tail is less vulnerable than the rest of the body.

Fringed-toed lizards use fringed scales on their toes to help them run over loose sand. Shown here is the rear left foot of a Colorado Desert Fringe-toed Lizard.	Fringed-toed lizards also have fringed eyelids to help keep sand out of their eyes, as you can see on the closed eye of this Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard.	This short video shows a Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard burying itself in the sand to hide. This lizard was captive and sluggish and buries itself slowly and incompletely. In the wild, fringe-toed lizards run quickly then suddenly dissapear as they dive into the sand.	On this Western Zebra-tailed Lizard you can see the Parietal Eye, or Third Eye, which is the small dark circle in the middle of the top of the head, slightly behind the eyes. Studies have shown that lizards use this patch of light-sensitive cells as a type of compass which lets them calculate their position and navigate by the sun.

This Texas Horned Lizard has elevated its body and filled itself with air to make it appear more threatening and too big to swallow.	Climbing geckos have specialized toe pads to help them climb. These are the toes of a Peninsular Leaf-toed Gecko.	Lizards shed their skin, usually a few times each year. Here, an adult male Desert Spiny Lizard in Arizona is shown with skin shed from its face and tail, but not yet from the rest of its body.	In this video, a Plateau Striped Whiptail, digging in a hole, stops and slowly waves its arms and tail in a strange behavior I can't explain.

Disturbed from his hiding spot under a rock, an alligator lizard threatens to bite and hisses several times when he is touched, in this short video.	Alligator lizards have strong jaws which let them bite hard and hold on.		San Diego Alligator lizards are good climbers, using their somewhat prehensile tail to hold on, but they aren't easy to spot in trees since they blend in well with the branches. This adult with a very long intact tail frequents this Mulberry tree. © Sylvia Durando

A leopard lizard slowly wriggles its long tail as if using it as a lure. Or maybe it's a nervous behavior.	Some lizards have transparent lower eyelids, like this Great Basin Whiptail. The eyelid is open on the left, and closed on the right.		A Northwestern Fence Lizard does his business for the camera, then runs towards it. It's like he was trying to tell me something.

In 2010, researchers at UC Santa Cruz discovered that Desert Night Lizards - Xantusia vigilis, live in family groups, showing social behavior more typical of mammals and birds such as primates, ground squirrels, and woodpeckers. The young night lizards remain with the father, mother, and siblings for several years, all living under the same plant debris.The young feed themselves and do not receive any direct care from the parents. It is not yet known what survival advantages the group living arrangement provides. (ScienceDaily 10/10) A few other lizard species have also evolved a social system around a nuclear family, including the Great Desert Skink of Australia, which lives in families consisting of a breeding pair and several generations of young. The families live in complex tunnel systems with up to 20 entrances and separate latrine areas that have been dug and maintained by the extended family. (Science Daily 5/11)
The Breeding Season
Spring is is the breeding season for most lizards. Males and females of some species develop orange coloring to show their breeding condition. In the case of the females, it means they are full of eggs. Male lizards sometimes grab onto the head of a female until she is ready to mate.

These mating Sierra Alligator Lizards were spotted on a forest trail in Plumas County in the middle of the afternoon. © 2005 Todd Accornero	Two mating Shasta Alligator Lizards. © Kelly Mathson	One March morning, Carola Bundy, ©, photographed these two male San Diego Alligator Lizards biting onto the head of a female lizard on her porch in Los Angeles County. By the afternoon, the smaller lizard on the left was gone and the other two had moved to the driveway.	A pair of mating San Diego Alligator Lizards © Liz Kubalek

A pair of San Diego Alligator Lizards. © Joy Lutz-Mizar	A pair of San Diego Alligator Lizards. © Aaron Fitzsimmons	Naomi Schiff © found this pair of California Alligator Lizards rolling down a hill and mating in late May.	These mating adult Coastal Whiptails in the Baja California desert were so preoccupied that they allowed me to get close enough to grab them if I'd wanted. But that would have been rude...

Two male attempting to mate with a female San Francisco Alligator Lizard. It's hard to be certain from these photos, but it looks like the bottom male is a California Alligator Lizard. © Emily Nelson		Breeding Coast Horned Lizards. © Becky Trask

Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards © John Sullivan	Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards © Jeremiah Easter	This gravid female Western Sagebrush Lizard shows orange color on her throat and sides.	In this video, a female Western Side-blotched Lizard in the San Diego County desert repeatedly goes in and out of a small hole under an exposed root, digging out the sand with her feet and pushing it lower with her body. It's the middle of the May breeding season, so she is probably digging out a place to lay her eggs.

Female Cope's Leopard Lizard showing red breeding coloring.	Gravid female Long-nosed Leopard Lizard showing her red breeding colors.	Red breeding colors on a gravid adult female Great Basin Collared Lizard	Adult male Nevada Side-blotched Lizard showing his bright orange breeding coloring.

This adult male Northern Desert Iguana, shows orange breeding coloring on his underside.	Breeding adult male Common Five-lined Skink.	Breeding male Northern Brown Skink.	This Skilton's Skink has orange breeding coloring.
Male - Female Interactions
These are some encounters between males and females that may also be part of courtship rituals. In some of the encounters, the males are chasing the females and shaking their bodies very quickly as if they are trying to persuade the females to mate. In another, a male sagebrush lizard appears to be agressive towards the female, who is full of eggs.

This is a short video of two Coast Range Fence Lizards during the breeding season. The first lizard, a female, does a territorial push-up display. A male sees her, comes up the side of the rock, and begins to pursue her. She arches her back and hops away, running in a circle to reject his advances. She may have already mated, or maybe he's not her type. He finally stops and does a push-up display. Afterwards, they both ran off.	This video shows some interactions between a male and a female Desert Spiny Lizard on the trunk of a large cottonwood tree. They both do push-up displays, and the female tries to put her head underneath the male a few times. It almost looks like the female is pursuing the male.	A male Western Side-blotched Lizard chases a female. She is not interested, and runs away.	This movie starts just after a male Western Sagebrush Lizard ran up the face of a large a rock outcrop and tackled a female, who was huge and full of eggs. He continues to harass her and she moves slowly with her body and her tail elevated defensively. She moves away and he sits on a ledge above her.

These three short videos show some interactions between a male and two orange gravid female Western Sagebrush Lizards on an afternoon in late June in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County. In the first video, they are separated but the male jumps down to join a female and the third comes down from her rock, then as their shade disappears, they move into a sunny patch only a few feet away from the camera to bask. The other two videos show lots of push-ups, tail elevating, shuffling around, and even what looks like snuggling.			In this short video, a female Great Basin Fence Lizard runs across a wall in Riverside County and encounters a male who pursues her. She rejects him and he runs to an open spot on top of the wall and does a push-up display.
Male Coloring
Males of many species of lizards have bright coloring on either their throats, their sides, their bellies, or all three, to show that they are males. Some even have a pattern on the rest of their body that differs from the female pattern.

Adult male Western Zebra-tailed Lizard © Bruce Edley	Adult male Long-tailed Brush Lizard	Adult male Baja California Brush Lizard	Adult male Coast Range Fence Lizard

Adult male Western Sagebrush Lizard	Adult male Desert Spiny Lizard	Adult male Great Basin Fence Lizard	Adult male Northwestern Fence Lizard

Adult male Colorado Desert Fringe-toed Lizard	Adult male Big Bend Canyon Lizard	Adult male Belding's Orange-throated Whiptail	Adult male Nevada Side-blotched Lizard
Caudal Autotomy - Tail Loss
Many species of lizards release their tail when they want to escape from a predator. The tail then continues to wriggle like a living creature, which distracts the predator away from the lizard's vulnerable body, allowing it to escape while the predator is left holding or trying to catch the expendable tail. That's one strategy. A study of lizards in Greece concluded that the lizards there drop their tails when bitten on the tail by venomous snakes. That way the venom does not reach the lizard's body. This tail dropping is called "Caudal Autotomy." Losing the tail does not seriously harm the lizard, and may save its life, but the loss of a tail might have a negative effect on the lizard's ability to run quickly, its attractiveness to the opposite sex, and its social standing. Dropped tails do grow back, but these regenerated tails are often not as long or as perfect as the original. It is not uncommon to find lizards in the wild with no tail or with a partially regenerated tail, so tail autotomy apparenty works. None of the detached tails seen below were broken off intentionally. All were either released by a lizard stressed by being captured or they were accidents of handling. These are examples of the harm that can be done to a lizard even from careful handling and serve as a warning to be careful when picking up a lizard.

This video shows the detached tail of a Desert Night Lizard as it wriggles on the ground. (Everything is shown at normal speed. The video has been edited to show the wriggling tail as it slows down over about 4 minutes.)	This adult Desert Night Lizard dropped its tail as a defesive measure. (You can see the tail wriggling after it was dropped off in the video to the left.)		Sometimes when a lizard loses part of its tail, it does not grow back in one piece, it comes back as a forked tail. That's what happened to this San Diego Alligator Lizard. © Sara Walhovd

As we were photographing a California Alligator Lizard, my herping companion picked it up to get a better pose. The lizard had already been handled for 5 to 10 minutes and seemed to tolerate it, but this time it decided to drop its tail. We felt terrible to be responsible for the loss of such a nice unbroken tail. Sometimes when you pick up a lizard too close to the tail, or push the tail against a hard sufrace, you can accidentally cause it to detach, but that wasn't the case here. I put the writhing tail on the ground where it danced around for about 4 minutes until it stopped, shooting some video of it, then set it back next to the lizard to get these photos.The lizard was then put back under his log unharmed, but unable now to use a detached tail as a decoy until it grows another one.			A California Alligator Lizard's tail, released from the body, thrashes around wildly on the ground in this video. This is the same tail shown to the left.

A Northern Alligator Lizard with a freshly dropped tail.			A Western Red-tailed Skink dropped its tail to distract me from trying to catch it. The trick worked - I filmed the tail and its writhing distracting motion, some of which you can see in this short video.

This San Diego Alligator Lizard was found missing most of tail	A Sierra Night Lizard with a partially regenerated tail.	A Texas Banded Gecko with a partially regenerated tail.	This Ground Skink lost its tail to a house cat, but survived.

In this short video, the detached tail of a California legless lizard wriggles rapidly, looking like a living creature, until it gradually slows down. This illustrates how a lizard can drop its tail to distract a predator then crawl away to safety while the predator chases the tail. The lizard and tail parts are seen to the right.	Adult, with detached tail, Riverside County (This tail was not removed intentionally, it was unexpectedly dropped by the lizard when it was stressed from being handled. My sincere apologies to the lizard...)	The body end of the detached tail - Left The detached tail - Right

These California Alligator Lizards both have partially regenerated tails		In this video, a juvenile Skilton's Skink loses its blue tail, which writhes around on the ground. This is a defensive measure used to distract the predator which caused the tail to become detached from the rest of the lizard as it tries to escape.	In this video you can see how the blue tail on a juvenile skink stands out when the lizard moves, especially when it uses its stripes to blend into the vegetation. A predator is more likely to go for the tail, which can detach without hurting the lizard.
Hunting and Feeding

In this video, a large old male Common Chuckwalla puts on a great show as he basks in the sun, does a few pushups, eats some bushes, then poops.	This video shows a LIttle White Whiptail hunting for red ants in the white sands.	This video shows a Texas Horned Lizard running around. At one point it quickly eats an ant.	In this video, an Arizona Striped Whiptail eats a small invertebrate.

A Plateau Tiger whiptail digs in the sand with all four legs looking for food in this short video.	A San Francisco Alligator Lizard tries to eat a lizard photographer. The attempt was unsuccessful.	Night active adult, San Diego County, eating a spider. © Stuart Young

Bob Herrmann © took these outstanding photos of an adult male Yarrow's Spiny Lizard eating a bug in the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona.			6-year-old lizard wrangler Enzo Forte holds a sub-adult San Diego Alligator Lizard that he found trying to kill and eat a potato bug in Ventura County. The lizard continued even after being picked up and struggled with the bug for about an hour before finally severing the bug's head. © Domiane Forte.

This short video shows some dark phase Great Basin Fence Lizards basking and eating small ants crawling over some rocks.	I crawled under a bush with a friendly Desert Iguana and tossed him a desert willow flower which he gobbled up for the video camera.
Lizard Movement

In this video, a Reticulate Gila Monster crawls around, flicking its tongue.	This night video shows a Desert Banded Gecko crawling slowly and waving its tail back and forth.	In this video, a California Alligator Lizard is discovered under a board on a sunny spring afternoon. It tries to bite, crawls across the ground in snake-like fashion, attempts to climb inside or over the camera, sticks out its tongue, then ducks back under its board.	This video shows a Flat-tailed Horned Lizard running rapidly and quickly burying itself in sand with a final fast shake of its short flat tail.

This video shows a large fast-moving adult Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard resting at the mouth of its burrow then running off into its sparseley-vegetated habitat.	In this video, two different Coast Horned Lizards are shown running quickly for a short distance then stopping to hide by blending in with the background, a typical defensive behavior for horned lizards.	In this video, a Colorado Desert Fringe-toed Lizard runs slowly, then very quickly over the hot sand.	This video shows a gravid female Sonoran Earless Lizard lowering herself onto her belly and shaking her legs. This might help regulate her temperature. Next we see a male basking on a rock.

In this video, an adult Mearns' Rock Lizard shows its rock climbing and jumping skills, finally doing a defensive push-up display. Next, a juvenile lizard crawls around the face of a massive rock.	This video shows the slow jerky movements typical of whiptails such as this Great Basin Whiptail.	This video of a Plateau Tiger whiptailshows typical whiptail behavior - slowly walking around, foraging for food at the edge of vegetation, and stopping to dig for food, then racing off across open ground to another location to continue.	In this short video, a large old Panamint Alligator Lizard crawls around in a brush pile at a desert spring , then jumps off and hangs from his tail and hind legs before dropping to the ground and running away.

Plateau Striped Whiptails seach and dig for food, then defecate. What goes in, must come out...
Lizard Predators

A Long-nosed Snake eating a Great Basin Whiptail © Lynette Schimming.			A captive Texas Nightsnake eats a Mediterranean Gecko.

A Red Coachwhip eating a San Diego Alligator Lizard. © Samantha Zahringer. Samantha Zahringer watched this coachwhip eat the lizard by her back door. Her kids saw the snake attack the lizard. It raised its head and neck off the ground, swayed for a moment, then struck quickly. Two other lizards nearby froze while the snake swallowed its meal, then they ran away quickly.		This hatchling Coast Range Fence Lizard has been preyed upon by a black widow spider. © Rory Doolin	Western Side-blotched Lizards are low on the food chain, falling prey to many predators, including desert scorpions. © Todd Battey

Ring-necked Snakes use a mild venom to subdue their prey which include snakes and lizards. This snake from San Diego County regurgitated a California Legless Lizard that it had recently eaten. © Donald Schultz			Roadrunners prey on whiptails and other lizards. This one has caught a Desert Grassland Whiptail in Arizona.


Sean Kelly shot this amazing series of pictures that show a fearless San Diego Alligator Lizard successfully defending itself from an attacking American Crow.

Sometimes the predator loses the battle and becomes the victim. Mark McCormick © shot this series of a San Diego Alligator Lizard biting onto the neck of a lizard-eating California Striped Racer. After the lizard finally let go, the snake quickly raced up a steep 15 foot high cliff up into some branches.			This Long-tailed Brush Lizard fell prey to a Roadrunner.

Sean Kelly © shot this series of a California Striped Racer eating a male Great Basin Fence lizard in San Diego County.			Click to see a YouTube video of a cooing Roadrunner in San Bernardino County with a Great Basin Whiptail in its bill.

Housecat or Domestic Cat - Felis catus (aka "George") Along with birds and rodents, housecats will also kill and sometimes eat lizards they find in the yard, in the house, or wherever they roam. They seem to do it for sport even if they're not hungry. This is one of many good reasons to keep your cat indoors.
Lizard Tracks and Signs

Fringe-toed prints	Whiptail tracks	Fringe-toed tracks	Lizard tracks

Desert Iguana tracks	Horned lizard scat	Iguana carcass
A California Lizard Travels to Germany

The lizard shown directly above was found in a freight container containing only metal boxes at the BMW plant in Dingolfing / Bavaria / Germany on Oct 17, 2006. The container was shipped from Stockton CA on Sep 14, 2006. The lizard survived a 33 day voyage without food and water. The container was placed most likely on the top deck of the vessel and hence cooled down considerably at night which explains the good condition of the animal upon arrival. Photos © Jochen Späth Information: Guntram Deichsel Many species of plants and animals have been introduced into areas of the planet where they did not naturally evolve. The journey of this lizard illustrates one way animals can spread around the globe: If the lizard was a gravid female who found conditions favorable to her survival once she arrived, laid her eggs, and eventually the offspring began reproducing, or if other lizards arrived at the same location and bred with her, then an established breeding population could develop.

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