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uk black lizards: |
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Robs adders Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 No. of posts: 88  View other posts by Robs adders |
Posted: 15 Mar 2008
I have been directed to this forum buy a friend of mine to ask for some opinions and answers to a few questions. I am a keen (amateur) wildlife photographer who has been studying a colony of wild adders for the last 5 years but there is one particular area I regularly visit that has some very unusual black lizards!! On my first encounter with one I thought I had just found a one off melanistic lizard but over most of 2007 every time I searched this area I found up to 5 different individuals, the most I counted in a day was 9 all in a area of about 3 acres!! Could this be a sub species of or common Lizard?? Or has the melanistic gene just been spread in one area. I have thought that they may be doing better doing better than the ordinary common lizards in this area as there main predators would be the snakes and the black lizards would warm up quicker than the regular ones!! Giving them the edge and the opportunity to escape predation earlier in the day!! Here are some pics of them I have lots and lots of pics of them if any one is interested I will post more pics. Regards Rob |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181  View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 16 Mar 2008 HI Rob, how large are these compared with other adult Common lizards? I mention this as all common lizards, when very young are almost black. Melanistic Zv are not unheard of, although that does sound like a high incidence. The pros and cons for melanistic animals have been a debate for many years. I believe that melanistic animals may warm faster, but must lose heat faster also, so you would expect the need to bask more often, for shorter duration that for normal morphs. As movement is a key cue for predators...I'm not sure it would be an advantage, and natural selection does appear to favour the 'normal' morph. Common lizards are very efficient regards 'warming up' and due to this and their relative size, would almost certainly be 'up to speed' sooner than any predating snake. For my tuppence, the pic looks like a melanistic female common lizard, from the darker broad band along the upper lateral surface and dark dorsal stripe ? Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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Robs adders Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2008 No. of posts: 88 View other posts by Robs adders |
Posted: 16 Mar 2008 hi Vicar These are definatly not juveniles they are as big if not a little bigger than the adult regular ones not sure about being able to sex them as I have not got that close to look at their underside i use a big zoom 500mm and my working distance is usually about 8-9 feet away!!
Regards Rob |
- uk black lizards |
Hi