Tag: Lizards

July 19, 2019

Watch: Wildlife managers catch scrub lizards for translocation

Wildlife managers are scrambling around in the bushes in an effort to help a struggling Florida lizard regain some of its lost territory. Kevin Enge, an associate research scientist with...

July 12, 2019

Watch: Predatory lizards drive anole extinction

Lizard research on tiny experimental islets in the Bahamas shows that prevailing ecological theory regarding the role of predators in ecosystems may not always be correct. Brown anoles (Anolis sagrei)...

April 17, 2019

‘Bearded lady’ lizards raise stronger offspring

Typical female fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) sport drab brown colors, but a few of them display the shiny blue neck patches more commonly found on males. Previous research has shown...

August 6, 2018

Which lizards can weather storms?

Long, strong back legs don’t help lizards survive storms such as Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, according to new research. For the first time, researchers looked at how physical characteristics...

May 2, 2018

Vertebrate pollinators are particularly vital

When it comes to wild plant production, vertebrates matter, too. A new global literature review indicates that vertebrates pollinate a big chunk of temperate and tropical wild plants, and it...

October 24, 2017

Reptile atlas highlights more biodiversity hotspots

Compared to other vertebrates, reptiles have been a mystery to science, and their distribution has been less understood than that of mammals, birds and amphibians. A recently completed global atlas...

August 29, 2017

Southeastern lizards adapt quickly to extreme weather

In one of the fastest, most well-documented instances of adaptation, lizards in the southeastern United States developed a tolerance to lower temperatures in response to a recent severe winter. “Extreme...

February 8, 2017

Sniffing out shrubs’ significance for endangered lizards

Endemic to California’s San Joaquin Valley, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila) has been fighting extinction for the last half-century. With a little assistance from a team of scat-sniffing canines,...

October 24, 2016

Shelterwood harvest is good for lizards, bad for salamanders

A common forestry practice may be bad for salamanders, but good for lizards, according to a recent U.S. Forest Service study published in Forest Ecology and Management. The researchers compared...

September 9, 2016

Patchy shade helps lizards survive the heat

Lizards may be in even worse trouble than ecologists thought. The small, cold-blooded animals are highly sensitive to climate change, and researchers have predicted that around 20 percent of species...