| Actual Image
Sand Lizard (34)
valy67
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1318 W: 52 N: 1782]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (5276) | Wow, it's ben two long month since I posted my last picture on TN ! Quite a lot of things happened, which kept me away from TN and even from photographys, but now I will go out with my camera again.
I foud this beautiful sand lizard at my grand parent's house - they always had many brown wall lizards, but I didn't know they had such wonderful species in their garden - I did't even know we had such bright green lizards in France ! It was quite a surprise for me ! It was quite a cold moring, very grey, a bit raiy, and I could catch him very easily, he moved slowly, so I captured him, and then I took some pictures, and released him again.
Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis)
This species has a light underbelly and a dorsal stripe: males tend to be darker in colour and turn green during the mating season (so I suppose the one on my picture can only be a male during mating season). It is distributed across most of Europe and eastwards to Mongolia, although it does not occur in some parts of Europe like Iberian peninsula or Great Britain. He can be up to 20cm in length.
The Sand Lizard lays eggs in late May or early June, these hatch between August and early October. The eggs are left buried in sand exposed to the sun which helps to keep them warm - this is why the species is usually confined to sandy and warm habitats.
As a WS, I added a picture of the entire lizard - as you can see, he is missing his tail, but well, that is not my fault, he had already lost it when I spotted him ! :-)
You can also see that the poor animal has a tick over his leg, and he also had 4 ticks on the other side - I didn't know these animals were also attacking reptiles, I thought they would only attack warm-blooded animals... |
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