RAUK - Archived Forum - Wall Lizards at Ventnor

On Saturday last we made a trip to the Isle of Wight to see if we could find any of the Wall Lizards that were alleged to have been established at Ventnor.   Within moment of arriving in the car park and adult male was seen sunning himself on a nearby wall.

In all about 30 adults were seen in the space of about half to three-quarter of an hour.  It would appear that  this colony is thriving.

Anybody compared the Ventnor colony to the Farnham colony ?

Are they even the same species ?

I asked the English Heritage chap and some of the Castle Gardeners about the Farnham Castle colony, nobody had ever seen a Lizard !

I really should have wandered about the castle more, earlier in the year...especially as its only 10 minutes walk from my house ! (cough), but I was tramping heaths at Frensham and Hankley :P

I've read somewhere that Podarcis are more active than our natives over the Winter months ? Is this so ?

If so I'll wander down on some warmer days over the next month or 2.

Finally got an excuse to wander down to Ventnor this weekend, was pretty late in the day when we got there, but managed a few snaps.

Hopefully pics are good enough for somebody with more expertise than I to identify the race ?

Managed another trip to Ventnor this over the last couple of days, and might be there again this May. Attached are some pics. Can the sub-species be identified?, or what measures would be required to make a positive ID ?

Oh, and they bite !

Mark,

None left at the castle, I've asked EH staff and the gardeners and looked myself. Only hope is that they are in one of the local walled gardens, I'll do a mailshot one of these days, as I live 10 minutes walk from the castle :P

Thanks for info Steve, shame that they're not there as it would've been worth a look.  The plan was to do some herping in the east of Hampshire then nip over to look for these.     I may have to take the boat over to the Isle of Wight and see them there.

Mark

Its certainly not necessary to catch the Wight ferry to see Wall lizards, plenty on the Bournemouth cliffs this afternoon. I guess this is why they're called 'Wall lizards' :

OK some weren't on walls

With reference to the introduced Wall Lizards identification of sub-species is tricky. But a significant proportion from Bournemouth, Ventnor and Shoreham have the intense green colouration together with extensive black marking, particularly on the underside, of nigriventris. Conversely, a significant proportion of individuals appear quite typical northern animals! It is, of course, entirely possible, since some of these known introductions are quite longstanding that they have evolved into a "UK" race. A combination of genetics, trace minerals in soil etc and natural selection (ie best camouflage) would see to this. (as evidenced by local variation in Sand Lizard colonies in the UK).

So far as potential native status is concerned the only factors that really support this are the one or two colonies of unknown origin plus the fact that in the south of England they do extremely well - apparently ideally adapted to our climate. Conversely, so far as I am aware, there is no fossil record (unlike the Pool Frog and Emys) and their distribution in Europe does note readily lend itself to access to the Uk by the "normal" route across to East Anglia. But it would be a braver man than I to rule it out completely!

Finally, someone mentioned their behaviour in winter. I normally describe this as " they only have a loose grasp on the concept of hibernation".  I think, simply, because they hibernate in rock/wall crevices rather than deep within burrows or vegetation, they are better able to detect the warmth of the sun - which against a wall can be quite considerable even in the depth of winter. Certainly, taking into account a combination of wild and captive colonies, I have seen both these and Podarcis sicula up and basking on every day in the calendar year at some time or the other over the last ten years.