Id this Lizard

Storm 10

Hi Guys I found this little fella in the back garden in Galway City, I caught him and released him in to a field, any idea where he came from or would he be an escaped pet.

billie1b

Storm 10 wrote: »

Hi Guys I found this little fella in the back garden in Galway City, I caught him and released him in to a field, any idea where he came from or would he be an escaped pet.

Looks to be just the common Irish Lizard

Storm 10

billie1b wrote: »

Looks to be just the common Irish Lizard

Thanks for that I never knew we had Lizards in Ireland got to say he looked lovely mind you the other half was not impressed.

Mickeroo

Viviparous Lizard, only one we have here (that's native anyway).

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Common lizard. But why remove him and put him in a field?

Storm 10

Maxwell Nutty Vice wrote: »

Common lizard. But why remove him and put him in a field?

Because the other half cant stand them when on holidays so one in the back garden, we get lots of Magpies in so for his own safety, actually its a large grown over are near the home so safer for him. probably be back again soon

recedite

Jeez, I'd love to have them in the back garden!!

fryup

only to be found in coastal areas i take it?

Alun

fryup wrote: »

only to be found in coastal areas i take it?

Not at all. I see them quite often when hillwalking all over Ireland. Saw two in the Slieve Blooms a couple of weeks ago in fact.

emo72

Seen them in glendalough too

Alun

Talking about lizards, I saw the strangest thing a few weeks ago on a hike in the boggy area where the sources of the Liffey, Avonmore and Dargle are located. We startled a lizard who then scurried towards one of the many small ponds, and promptly swam across it! I never knew lizards could swim.

Birdie Num Num

Caught one in rural Leixlip a while back. Was quite large too. Are they becoming more commonly sighted?

recedite

They have always been fairly common, but only in the right place, and at the right time.
You'll typically see them after disturbing them on a sunny day in summer, while they are basking on a rock. Mostly on mountain or sea cliff habitat.
You'd think coasts and mountains are very different habitats, and so they are. I suspect they need somewhere dry for their winter hibernation, somewhere that will never flood, and that is the main reason they frequent rocky and/or upland areas.

whyulittle

Have them here in the flat boggy midlands too!

Birdie Num Num

recedite wrote: »

They have always been fairly common, but only in the right place, and at the right time.
You'll typically see them after disturbing them on a sunny day in summer, while they are basking on a rock. Mostly on mountain or sea cliff habitat.
You'd think coasts and mountains are very different habitats, and so they are. I suspect they need somewhere dry for their winter hibernation, somewhere that will never flood, and that is the main reason they frequent rocky and/or upland areas.

I know the typical habitats but had never actually seen one in Ireland before, at least in the wild. Just was strange that it is was in a friend’s garden. It was relatively rural but on the edge of the suburbs too. Just seem to be more common in locations I wouldn’t ordinarily have expected. OP’s one in Galway city garden. Then there was one wrapped up in the web of a false widow spider in Dalkey or Killiney a while back. ...That says more about the progress of that particular spider in Ireland rather than the common lizard.

recedite

whyulittle wrote: »

Have them here in the flat boggy midlands too!

But are they in a raised or rocky area above the bog, or are they actually in the low lying area?

whyulittle

Any I've ever seen have been along the edge of trails through the bog.

recedite

Well, its just my own theory that it is something to do with the winter drainage.
Its a bit of a mystery why they would be locally common in some places, but completely absent in others. Not like frogs, which turn up everywhere.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

recedite wrote: »

But are they in a raised or rocky area above the bog, or are they actually in the low lying area?

You'll find them in what would be described as heaths and moors. They don't require rocky areas.

recedite

ie "uplands"

Tiercel Dave

recedite wrote: »

ie "uplands"

Not necessarily, I've seen them in sand dunes beside the sea and there are plenty of reports of 'sightings' from Clara Bog.....

Seth Brundle

Tiercel Dave wrote: »

Not necessarily, I've seen them in sand dunes beside the sea and there are plenty of reports of 'sightings' from Clara Bog.....

I saw my first one a few years ago on the walkway through the dunes at Barleycove beach

corks finest

Birdie Num Num wrote:

I know the typical habitats but had never actually seen one in Ireland before, at least in the wild. Just was strange that it is was in a friend’s garden. It was relatively rural but on the edge of the suburbs too. Just seem to be more common in locations I wouldn’t ordinarily have expected. OP’s one in Galway city garden. Then there was one wrapped up in the web of a false widow spider in Dalkey or Killiney a while back. ...That says more about the progress of that particular spider in Ireland rather than the common lizard.

Roberts head ( above Roberts cove) Cork ,fair chance of seeing one on the cliff walk on a rock getting the sun( twice in as many weeks)

New Home

Alun wrote: »

Talking about lizards, I saw the strangest thing a few weeks ago on a hike in the boggy area where the sources of the Liffey, Avonmore and Dargle are located. We startled a lizard who then scurried towards one of the many small ponds, and promptly swam across it! I never knew lizards could swim.

They can for short distances and for a short period of time, beyond that they end up paddling furiously without gaining any distance, get exhausted and drown. I always have a "landing area" for them in the water butt, even if it's just a bit of fabric.

forgottenhills

recedite wrote: »

But are they in a raised or rocky area above the bog, or are they actually in the low lying area?

The only time I actually saw a lizard wild in Ireland was in my uncles small private area of bogland in Cavan about 40 years ago. My uncle was an oldish guy at that point but still insisted on cutting a small amount of black turf by hand out of his bog every summer. I saw the small lizard basking on a pile of turf he had cut and stacked in the bog to dry. It was a fairly wild piece of bogland mostly covered in willows and briars and old bogholes covered in long grass so I don't know where the lizards normally basked. I have never encountered lizards anywhere else despite doing a fair bit of walking in different parts of Ireland (although not looking for them I might add).

Actually I have always thought that some of these small private areas of bog that you get pretty much everywhere in Ireland could still be holding a few secrets in terms of undiscovered species of plants or insects. Many of these areas although they can sometimes be 20 or 30 acres in size are quite isolated from each other and at the same time must be some of the most undisturbed or unexplored habitats in Ireland. I don't mean the big commercial bogs or upland bogs. I mean the small bits of bog here and there in the middle of good farmland in the midlands which are often overgrown by vegetation and surrounded by big drains of water and which can be treacherous with old bogholes, so have been left pretty much untouched by machinery or even by people walking through.

recedite

Interesting, so we seem to have mountain, bog and cliffs/coastal dunes as their preferred habitats.
I think its also fair to say they are absent from most of the land mass of this country. Unlike, say frogs, which are found almost everywhere.
So what could the limiting factor for lizards be?
And what do the above habitats have in common?

New Home

Limiting factors (and these are wild guesses):

1) Heat? They tend to get sluggish with colder temperatures;
2) Water (and very cold, at that)? Like we mentioned before, they can't really swim at all.

recedite

Water - well they are not aquatic, but they can swim if they fall in, so I don't think its really a factor one way or the other.


Heat - maybe. The surface of a bog can get very hot in summer, as can sandy areas around the coast. More so than grassland or forest.
Mountain on the other hand (even mountain bog) tends to be a cooler place.
We're probably at the extreme end of the range for reptiles, temperature wise.
Also as these are viviparous, the females presumably might need a certain number of decent basking days to develop their young inside.
All these places are unshaded, could that be it?

Or to put it another way, high in solar radiation.

Maybe lizards are a bit like solar panels - they don't just like the sun, they need to get as much sun as possible.

Alun

Here's one I found a few years back up in the general area of Black Hill / Mullaghcleevaun. Not a hot day by any means, and certainly not dry either ...

Alun

recedite wrote: »

Water - well they are not aquatic, but they can swim if they fall in, so I don't think its really a factor one way or the other.

It's odd, the one I posted about earlier when it was startled and jumped into the pond, wasn't so much swimming as almost walking across the water. If you look at the photo you can see the surface tension of the water. It's feet were moving around but it wasn't really moving that quickly, almost as if it was being held in place by the surface tension.

loyatemu

you can send your sighting to the Irish Wildlife Trust who are surveying reptile locations:
https://iwt.ie/what-we-do/citizen-science/national-reptile-survey/

the map on that page suggests they're fairly widespread - I've seen them in Greystones (not for a few years though).

recedite

Alun wrote: »

Here's one I found a few years back up in the general area of Black Hill / Mullaghcleevaun. Not a hot day by any means, and certainly not dry either ...

Seems like a sunny day, all the same.

Looks like this little fella has lost his tail previously, to a predator.

New Home

recedite wrote: »

Water - well they are not aquatic, but they can swim if they fall in, so I don't think its really a factor one way or the other.

Heat - maybe. The surface of a bog can get very hot in summer, as can sandy areas around the coast. More so than grassland or forest.
Mountain on the other hand (even mountain bog) tends to be a cooler place.
We're probably at the extreme end of the range for reptiles, temperature wise.
Also as these are viviparous, the females presumably might need a certain number of decent basking days to develop their young inside.
All these places are unshaded, could that be it?

Or to put it another way, high in solar radiation.

Maybe lizards are a bit like solar panels - they don't just like the sun, they need to get as much sun as possible.

They can't really swim in deep water for any length, their feet/paws aren't webbed, they tend to get exhausted and drown, if they don't find something to cling to. If they fall into water, their temperature drops, too, and they find it hard to move until they've warmed up again (provided they don't drown! And I know this from direct experience, as any lizard I rescued from the water butt I had to warm up in my hands and with my breath to get it moving again, and only when warm again would it zoom away). Being cold-blooded, yes, they do need sunshine/heat, however I don't know what's their "minimum operating temperature", for lack of a better expression.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

recedite wrote: »

Interesting, so we seem to have mountain, bog and cliffs/coastal dunes as their preferred habitats.
I think its also fair to say they are absent from most of the land mass of this country. Unlike, say frogs, which are found almost everywhere.
So what could the limiting factor for lizards be?
And what do the above habitats have in common?

They have, according to survey results I have here, a range of habitats, from woodland, marshes, heath, moors, bogs, mountain, and sand-dunes to landfill dumps.
You could just as easily say pine martens or stoats or badgers are absent from most of the land mass. Every species is limited by some factors including habitat, food sources, or humidity/climate. Lizards are classed in Ireland as "widespread distribution" and as LC (least concern). They are without a doubt under recorded and are, I feel, more common and widespread than you imagine.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

New Home wrote: »

They can't really swim in deep water for any length, their feet/paws aren't webbed, they tend to get exhausted and drown, if they don't find something to cling to. If they fall into water, their temperature drops, too, and they find it hard to move until they've warmed up again (provided they don't drown! And I know this from direct experience, as any lizard I rescued from the water butt I had to warm up in my hands and with my breath to get it moving again, and only when warm again would it zoom away). Being cold-blooded, yes, they do need sunshine/heat, however I don't know what's their "minimum operating temperature", for lack of a better expression.

A book I have states " It may also enter water bodies to hunt". But, like all reptiles the exertion tires them quickly and requires considerable time to recover from lactic acid build up.

Alun

Maxwell Nutty Vice wrote: »

They are without a doubt under recorded and are, I feel, more common and widespread than you imagine.

I always try and remember to report any I see.

forgottenhills

recedite wrote: »

Interesting, so we seem to have mountain, bog and cliffs/coastal dunes as their preferred habitats.
I think its also fair to say they are absent from most of the land mass of this country. Unlike, say frogs, which are found almost everywhere.
So what could the limiting factor for lizards be?
And what do the above habitats have in common?

I have never heard any members of the farming community I know talking about seeing lizards on farmland, and these are people that are out on their land every day. As you say they seem to be mainly present in rough areas such as bogs, woods, dunes or mountains. Perhaps this could be due to them having to stay close to deep cover to hide from predators such as cats, dogs, foxes, magpies etc which might stay away from the very roughest areas?

recedite

Cats. You could be onto something there alright.

fred funk }{

Is it possible some people are confusing newts with lizards?. They're similar.

forgottenhills

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Is it possible some people are confusing newts with lizards?. They're similar.

Could be, particularly if they are seeing "lizards" in water.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Is it possible some people are confusing newts with lizards?. They're similar.

Minimal impact on records.

Birdie Num Num

forgottenhills wrote: »

Could be, particularly if they are seeing "lizards" in water.

I’ve never seen a common lizard in water and never seen a newt out of water. The only lizard I have seen in the wild in Ireland was effectively on farmland or at least a garden surrounded by farmland on the edge of suburbs.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Birdie Num Num wrote: »

I’ve never seen a common lizard in water and never seen a newt out of water. The only lizard I have seen in the wild in Ireland was effectively on farmland or at least a garden surrounded by farmland on the edge of suburbs.

Newts are widespread out of water when it's not the breeding season - much like frogs. That said, those actively researching and recording lizards certainly know the difference between nets and lizards.

Stigura

Dated 11th September 2006. Found in my living room. Allowed to wander onto a sheet of paper for the shot:

I've had some other pond life in my living room. But, one shouldn't speak ill of the dead.

Seth Brundle

Where is your living room???

Stigura

All around me, as I type this! :eek: