Since the invasion of the wall lizards, we’ve seen no snakes. A decade ago, Nature Boy and I would see the occasional garter snake in our yard. Little is known how the now-too-common common wall lizard may be harming the Island’s environment, but some evidence suggests wall lizards are eating pollinating bees and dining on young garter snakes. Perhaps the youngster saw its options as being a choice between taking its chances with a boot or being eaten alive by its cousins. That said, wall lizards eat their own young. Indeed, the dozens of other, larger lizards that had been sunning themselves on the walkway alongside the little lizard had all zipped into the nearest grass and bushes alongside as we approached - one moment practically covering the sidewalk, the next moment gone. Moving towards danger is not usually the best escape route. I suspect the lizard’s youth and inexperience with clumsy-footed humans contributed to its demise. A big beetle’s exoskeleton would generate quite a snap and crackle. With its internal skeleton somewhat padded by soft tissues, less of a crunch occurred than if the creature had been, for example, a staghorn beetle of similar size. The lizard was not much longer than two centimetres. Despite the whole-body squash, I felt nothing through the sole of my boot. Last week’s encounter was less gross than that earlier experience and also less gross than it sounds. I, on the other hand, almost lost my morning café crème. A lizard had found its way around the window screen into the room we were renting, and, in our attempts to trap it with a wastepaper basket to eject it from the premises, we caught the tail with the edge of the basket.Īs the lizard ran, the lizard-less tail continued to thrash, and Nature Boy practically levitated in excitement. Nature Boy and I witnessed the tail-dropping phenomenon several years ago when we were travelling in southern Europe, the common wall lizard’s home and native land. The tail would have detached, and the lizard would run free, possibly living long enough to grow another tail. Now, if I’d caught just the tail with my boot last week, the lizard would probably have survived. They’ve also been reported on Denman, Salt Spring and Pender islands, and in Abbotsford, West Vancouver and Osoyoos on the mainland. ![]() ![]() The Island’s wall lizard population is now estimated to be in the 500,000–700,000 range. Since about a dozen lizards were released from a small zoo near Butchart Gardens in the late 1960s, their descendants have colonized the Island’s east coast, from Victoria to Campbell River. It ran across my path as my foot was coming down, and it was a choice between saving the lizard or my ankle.Īs has been reported in these pages, European or common wall lizards are overrunning the region.
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