Alligator lizards and others.

DON'T LOOK ROBIN!!!


Horse Lizards, Northern Alligator Lizards, or Elgaria Coerulea.

I was just wondering what I might talk about next when Cousin Penny asked when we were going to talk about Horse Lizards.

When we first built built our house in Benbow, I went down to clear the bush piles off of our lot. Near the bottom was a large pile of fir limbs. I took my chain saw and cut them up as fire wood. I encountered maybe ten alligator lizards in the pile. I still stack my fire wood in that same place. Every spring I find three or four alligator lizards in the wood, and usually find several shed skins. I have never really gotten used to them and they still give me a fright when I run across them. I find that it is easier to ignore them and let them crawl away to scare me again another day.

Most every little kid gets a good lesson in lizards when they first try to catch an alligator lizard. They are mean, they don't like to be messed with, and they bite!!! When they bite they don't like to let loose. This sweet little thing in the hand, in the photo, is probably close to frozen to be so docile. Also, they shed their tails very easily. It flips around for a few minutes after the lizard releases it. A cat will immediately play with the tail while the lizard makes it's escape. Nice diversion but then it has to grow a new tail which it does so readily. Wouldn't it be nice if a human being could grow new body parts after loosing them?
When bitten by an alligator lizard, if it breaks the skin, it will usually cause a small wound infection, but if kept clean and cared for it heals right up. Most people flinch and cause the wound to be much worse that if you just let it release itself. Do you think that you could just calmly let it quit biting you? Some people don't seem to mind being bit, and they will let themselves get bit on purpose just to show how brave that they are. Myself? I not one of those. Snakes and alligator lizards give me the screamin' bejabbers.

Western Fence Lizard, or what we called "the Blue Bellied Lizard.

The blue bellied lizard is a lizard that most kids play with. It is very common in our area. It is docile, but hard to catch. We would try to catch them an put them in coffee cans because they couldn't climb up the slick wall of the can. The baby lizards were even less scary and they were fun to catch and play with, then release. After being played with for a while, they stop feeling threatened, then they would run all over you without trying to run away. Great pets, but hard to care for. They tame right down, so we would catch one play with it for a while and turn it back loose. Very common in south fork canyon.









Thank-you "Anonymous" for the photo!

Another lizard that is common to the South Fork canyon that not many people have ever seen, is a very slim lizard about 6-8 inches long. It is subterranean. It has a brilliant blue tail and short legs. The reason that I have seen so many is from working in the woods. The Cat would blade them out of hillsides when building skid roads. We called them “Blue racers”, but I doubt that is the real name. If I can find a photo or some identification of what it is I'll post it here. It is a most beautiful critter.