The most common type of lizard is the common lizard, or, in other words, This species of animal is not the most popular for home breeding. If only because in captivity they reproduce extremely rarely. Of course, there are many advantages to having a pet mini-dinosaur: for example, you don’t need to walk it, and this animal is much quieter than cats or dogs. Although it still requires some conditions of detention.
So, you caught a lizard and brought it home. How to understand what gender a given individual is? Usually males are larger and brighter in color, and in the month of May they become completely green. The age of your lizard can be determined by its size: the older, the bigger. On average they reach a length of about 30 cm (including tail). Life expectancy is about 6 years.
Common lizard at home
Having decided on the gender and age of your captive, you need to create certain conditions for her life so that she does not die of hunger in the first week. The animal is quite small, so its requirements are appropriate.
First, you will need a long horizontal terrarium. Of course, it can live for some time in an ordinary three-liter jar, but the common lizard is a rather active creature, it needs to “walk around” somewhere. In addition, your terrarium should be high enough: you will be surprised how far lizards can jump. If you don't want her to simply jump out of the glass shelter, this condition must be met.
Secondly, you must create conditions that are familiar to her in the terrarium. First of all, this concerns the ground where she will dig her holes. The soil should be without any additives or fertilizers; you can also use sand or shavings for rodents, sold at any pet store. Be sure to throw it in new house your lizard different branches, because. This species, in the wild, loves to climb trees.
Required temperature, lighting and humidity
The common lizard requires a lot of heat to warm itself and not fall into suspended animation. General temperature The temperature of the terrarium at night should not be below 21°C, and during the day it should not be 30°C. But you definitely need an area where it will be 36°C during the day so that your pet receives the warmth it needs. This can be achieved using various lamps, such as infrared or glass-ceramic. With the same lamp you can give your lizard necessary light. The soil should also be warmed up using a special mat, which you can find in a pet store. For the required humidity in the terrarium, in the coolest place, you need to place a bowl of water in which your lizard would completely fit.
What do common lizards eat?
Of course, these are insects: spiders, earthworms, Boiled very nutritious for lizards chicken eggs. Young individuals need to be fed using tweezers, otherwise they will simply die of starvation. In addition, the lizard experiences stress when it is in captivity; it may refuse to eat. In this case, you need to put food directly into her mouth. This lizard should be fed three times a day. In two weeks she will get used to the situation and will eat regularly on her own.
The quick lizard (lat. Lacertaagilis) belongs to the family of True lizards ( Lacertidae). She is a representative of the largest genus of Green lizards ( Lacerta). The color is varied and completely depends on its habitat. This reptile lives throughout Europe and Central Asia.
The quick lizard settles in places with moderate continental climate. She prefers dry and open areas with a small amount of vegetation or bright clearings where there is a convenient place for sunbathing. It can usually be seen on sunlit edges, on the slopes of ravines and hills, railway embankments, on the ruins of houses and on personal plots.
To feel comfortable, lizards need a piece of land with loose soil, where they can easily hide in case of danger. A disturbed reptile often hides in rodent burrows. The sand lizard often settles on lands cultivated by humans. You can always find a lot of insects in uprooted and plowed lands.
In some regions its population has declined significantly. The unrestricted use of pesticides led to this result. Among the most dangerous natural enemies This species includes ordinary domestic cats. Many of them happily eat these reptiles. In the southern mountainous regions, the sand lizard can live at an altitude of up to 3500 meters above sea level.
The reptile leads a diurnal lifestyle. It spends the winter hibernating, hidden in a burrow. With the arrival of spring, he leaves his winter apartment and goes hunting.
On its territory there is always a heated sun rays a stone, a fence or a piece of land. Stretching out in the sun, the reptile warms up its frozen body. Such a solarium is located not far from the mink, since when danger approaches, you can always hide in it in time.
U snapping lizard there are a lot of enemies, so she hides between stones or in the shade of bushes. Of particular danger are beasts of prey, birds and snakes.
The caught reptile instantly throws off its tail and runs away. Over time, she grows a new tail. She hunts beetles, centipedes, spiders, earthworms and small frogs. In early October, she hides in a hole and sleeps until spring.
Reproduction
The mating season begins at the end of March and ends in June. At this time, the male acquires a bright emerald color, and the females retain their modest attire.
Excited males run around the area, regularly rising on their hind legs and looking around. When rivals meet, bloodless battles often occur. The winner receives the legal right to procreate. After mating, the female looks for a clearing warmed by the sun, digs a hole in it and at the end of June lays from 5 to 15 eggs.
Eggs have a soft shell. After 7-9 weeks of incubation, small lizards up to 6 cm long are born. They are darker in color than their parents. There are barely light specks on the dark brown sides.
Juveniles reach sexual maturity by two years. IN Central Europe females manage to produce one brood per year, and more warm regions range are capable of laying eggs twice.
Description
The body length reaches 26 cm. The head has a rounded shape. Eyes with red or golden-yellow iris. The body is very dense and slender. The back and head are grayish-brown, with a number of dark spots appearing on the sides. The light gray belly is covered with white specks. In females, the overall color tone is not as intense as in males.
Lizards have strong long legs, at the ends of the fingers there are sharp claws. The tail accounts for up to 60% of the total body length.
Lifespan of a sand lizard in wildlife does not exceed 5-6 years. In captivity good care some individuals live up to 11-12 years.
Everyone is most likely familiar with such nimble and cute creatures called nimble lizards. These animals are quite widespread and can be found in forests, steppes and even mountains. Few people in childhood did not dream of taking this “little animal” home with them. Is it possible to keep them at home and what will be necessary for this, we will consider in this article.
Sand lizard in its natural environment
Lacerta agilis Linnaeus (that's its name in Latin) inhabits significant territories of our country, limited to the south Arkhangelsk region, South Karelia, Western Baikal region, autonomous Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, Komi Republic.
It is also quite widespread in other countries: Eastern France, Southern England, Belarus, Baltics, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc.
The lizard usually prefers heated sun-dry places in the steppe, forest or mountains no more than 2 km high. Reptiles live in pairs. At night, they hide in burrows, under stumps or stones. They usually spend the winter there.
What does a sand lizard look like?
Its size is approximately 27-30 cm. In appearance, these representatives of the group of true lizards are similar to tailed amphibians, but differ from them in being more slender physique:
There are quite a lot of variations in the color of males a large number of(from almost black to olive and light green). In the southern regions, green is most often found. During breeding, males become brighter. Females are brown or gray with various patterns. The young are the same color, but have three stripes on the back.
Compatibility and character of the sand lizard
In the role housing choose burrows made by other animals or independently. They do not go far from them, no more than 12-20 meters even when hunting. When in danger, they run away, disorienting the attacker. permanent shift directions of movement.
Activity daytime. These lizards are quite nimble: they climb high, run fast, change direction of movement with lightning speed, jump well, can catch flies on the fly, etc. For such “talents” they were called quick.
At the same time, we are constantly on the alert and very careful. During any danger, they climb onto a plant branch or rush into a hole. If an attacker grabs a lizard by the tail, it can save its life by throwing off part of it. In response to the sensation of pain, a fracture occurs in the middle of one of the vertebrae. Due to muscle contraction near the wound, there is never any bleeding.
Subsequently, the tail regenerates, that is, it grows back, but it will be a slightly different color and a little shorter. This reflex.
Preparing a lizard for keeping in an aquarium
Preparation consists of several stages:
To keep a sand lizard, a terrarium of 40x60x40 cm is sufficient. The door should be located not on top, but on the side. In this case, the reptile will see that no one is attacking it and will not experience so much stress. It can be kept in a low, large aquarium without a lid. But it is prohibited in any boxes!
Control must be carried out temperature air, including at night. It is advisable to organize two temperature zones: cool (up to 25) and hot (35 degrees).
The temperature at night should not be less than 20 degrees, otherwise the lizards' metabolism begins to slow down, they become sluggish or completely hibernate.
There are various devices available to maintain the correct temperature. You can buy them in specialized stores. In terrariums apply:
The terrarium must have a bowl of water of such a size that the reptile can climb into it. The container is placed in a cool area. You can additionally use damp sponges or spray. It is also not recommended to allow waterlogging, as fungus will begin to develop. Why does ventilation in a home need to be good?
You can organize a pond and several shelters. To prevent the lizard from getting hurt, any decor should have no sharp edges. You can install several branches for climbing.
You can place any soil at the bottom of the aquarium, in addition to sand, small shavings, etc. They can enter the stomach with food and cause health problems.
Feeding the sand lizard
In specialized stores you can find cockroaches and crickets. Very good feed locusts, tobacco hawkmoth, mealworms.
Occasionally you can treat them to eggs or meat (boiled chicken or raw beef). When the pieces are quite large, the animal will chew them in its mouth for a long time, spit it out and swallow it again.
Food should not be monotonous. For example, if you feed only mealworms, this can lead to fatty liver in the lizard.
Periodically it is necessary to give special vitamins and minerals. supplements. They are made in powder form.
Food is given every day, 2 times in winter and three times a day in summer, in the amount of 7-12 insects at a time. Adults will be able to take food on their own, but it is best to give it to young animals with tweezers. It is advisable to remove uneaten insects from the aquarium at night. There have been cases where crickets and grasshoppers damaged the skin of a sleeping lizard.
Is wintering at home required?
Not all owners hibernate their lizards, but it is quite important. For what influences wintering:
- On the brightness and color saturation of males. “Sleeping” males fade over the winter, and in the spring their former color does not return.
- For reproduction. Lizards that have not hibernated do not mate.
- For lifespan. Reptiles without hibernation live less and get sick more often.
- On lizard activity.
Like hibernating input and output lizard:
You need to know what a lizard does in hibernation heartbeat it is almost not felt, and breathing is approximately 2 times per minute. Since there have been cases where owners threw out live lizards, mistakenly considering them dead.
- Exit from hibernation occurs with a gradual increase in temperature.
- Then it is necessary to provide good heating and UV irradiation.
- For the first 3 days, the reptile can only bask and not eat anything.
- There is no need to forcefully give her food.
- During a successful outcome, very soon the lizard will become active again and will also shed.
Hibernation must occur for at least one month and no more than four. Why exactly this time? When wintering lasts less than a month, it is not enough and problems begin to appear that are similar to those that occur during the absence of hibernation at all.
When a reptile “sleeps” for more than the specified time, it does not have enough reserves of substances and energy, exhaustion occurs, and it dies during hibernation or during its emergence from it.
What health problems can a sand lizard have?
As a rule, there are two of them:
- Binge eating. Leads to diseases, decreased activity, problems with reproduction, and shortened life. Symptoms of overeating: the animal moves little and lies a lot, practically does not eat, the belly has enlarged, the lizard does not shed. You can't solve the problem without giving food. It is necessary to gradually reduce its amount, while increasing heating and daylight hours. All these measures are required to normalize the condition and speed up metabolic processes.
- Malnutrition. Without hibernation, fasting for 2-4 weeks is harmful. In this case, metabolism is disrupted, the body is depleted, color deteriorates, growth slows down, and problems with hibernation, molting and reproduction begin. You can recognize malnutrition by hanging skin, thinness, aggressiveness towards everything, rather reduced or, conversely, increased activity, and a shriveled tail.
Don't give these lizards a lot of food right away! You need to start with a few nutritious insects, gradually increasing the portion to normal. At the same time, increase humidity and heating, as well as daylight hours. You need to know that after a long fast, the process of digesting food takes twice as long as usual.
In this case, activity will remain, but metabolic processes will slow down, due to this, reserves of nutrients and energy will be consumed more slowly. Also don't forget to add water.
Reproduction
A male who is ready for reproduction, looks around, raising his body above the ground. Seeing a female, he begins to pursue her. When he succeeds in catching it, he grabs it with his mouth near the base of the tail, clasps it with all his legs and mates.
After a certain time (usually the beginning of June), the female lays 7-15 fairly large eggs and buries them in a hole. The embryo inside the egg begins to develop, and a ready-made young lizard emerges (usually in August). Strong males can eat the young.
In the end, it is only necessary to note that, despite their exoticism, nimble lizards are quite unpretentious animals. The most important thing is to initially create the “right” conditions for them. They are also smart and cute. Watching these animals is a pleasure for both adults and children.
Nimble and fast creatures - lizards are found everywhere in the garden and vegetable garden, in the forest and in garden plots.
On warm days, they quickly run among stones and plants, along rocks and walls of houses, deftly climb bushes and trees, or, spread out, bask in the sun.
Many rural, and even more so city residents, treat them with fear or disdain; some consider them harmful or even poisonous animals.
Like other reptiles, snakes, turtles, crocodiles, lizards They live mainly in southern latitudes, and only a small number of species are found in temperate latitudes. The most big variety these animals are in the Caucasus.
Most often we encounter snapping lizard, which is also called ordinary. It is found throughout the European part of Russia, in the south and middle part of Western Siberia.
Lizards of this genus have well-developed limbs. They have sharp, slightly curved claws on their fingers, which help animals move quickly along vertical, rough surfaces. The body is covered on top with small, usually granular, scales. Small eyes are equipped with separate eyelids. When animals sleep, they close their eyes, which is something that snakes or other species of lizards, whose fused eyelids form a transparent “window,” cannot afford to do.
Lizards reproduce by laying eggs in the soil. Of these, after 50 - 60 days, newborn lizards emerge, ready for independent life.
The exception is viviparous lizard , common in the north and found even in the tundra above the Arctic Circle. She gives birth to live cubs, up to 12 in number. The existence of lizards that lay eggs, the development of which requires a warm “nest,” is simply impossible in northern conditions. The size of adult lizards including the tail is no more than 15 cm.
In the south, in gardens and vegetable gardens you can see others, less common lizards - medium and green. All types of lizards living in our country are not only harmless, but also bring great benefits.
The legless spindle lizard is found in the Caucasus. She lives in secret and is not often seen on the surface. This completely harmless animal, unfortunately, is often confused with snakes and attempts are made to destroy it. Its brown body is covered with completely smooth, rather large scales, its eyes have separate eyelids, and its tail is blunt. Scientific name This lizard has a brittle spindle, which is associated with the ability to break off its tail. This is one way to avoid danger - sacrifice your tail, but save your life. This ability is characteristic not only of the spindle, but also of many other lizards. A new one will then grow in place of the severed tail. The border between the old and newly grown tails is often clearly visible.
Lizards feed mainly on invertebrate animals - worms, mollusks, spiders, centipedes, insects. The “menu” of lizards includes many different pests: mole crickets, various beetles, flies, butterflies and their caterpillars. Lizards also destroy various disease carriers. Depending on their habitat, the diet of lizards consists of 35–98% harmful insects and their larvae. Lizards eat quite a lot and in terms of the intensity of destruction of garden, vegetable or forest pests they are almost as good as many useful birds. Being hungry, for example, after long period inclement weather, lizards even grab and eat hairy caterpillars of the ringed cocoon moth and inedible Colorado potato beetles. The spindle is somewhat different from other species in terms of its range of food. It feeds on earthworms, naked slugs, woodlice, as well as insects and their larvae. Sharp, bent back teeth allow this lizard to hold slippery prey in its mouth.
Lizards are cold-blooded animals. Their body temperature depends on temperature environment. In the morning hours, they sunbathe and, only having warmed up, begin hunting, catching spiders, caterpillars, leafhoppers, grasshoppers, bedbugs, butterflies and other insects. During the hottest hours, lizards go into the shade, crawl into various shelters, and appear again in the afternoon when the heat subsides.
On a cloudy day cold weather lizards hide under the bark of fallen trees, in rotten stumps and holes. At this time, their body temperature decreases, the animals become cold to the touch, do not feed and do not come to the surface until warm sunny days come again.
Lizards are silent creatures and cannot communicate with each other through sounds, but they have well-developed color vision, thanks to which males and females of the same species find each other by color, and also recognize “their” different species.
But there are among huge number lizards, and there are globe There are more than 5,000 species, a whole family of geckos that have the ability to make sounds - gentle melodic or loud abrupt ones, characteristic of each species.
A person must not only be tolerant of lizards, but also protect them from persecution, and even more so from unreasonable destruction. Indeed, nowadays lizards are found much less frequently in their usual habitats than several decades ago. There are many reasons for this: reduction of natural lands, wide application pesticides to combat pests and diseases of agricultural crops, from which lizards directly or indirectly suffer, and much more. It is necessary, if possible, to preserve those areas where these animals could live normally.
If lizards have settled in your garden or vegetable garden at your dacha, do not drive them away and do not allow children to catch them just to admire them. Learn for yourself and teach your children to observe these useful animals in their natural environment without harming them. Remember that these small nimble lizards bring us very tangible benefits in the fight to preserve the harvest.
The most common group of the reptile class are lizards, of which there are almost six thousand species. They differ in size, color and habits. Even if we do not take into account the fact that new species of lizards are regularly discovered, the names and photographs of all the animals of this suborder would still not be possible to fit into one article. Let's meet only representatives of this group.
Types of lizards: names and photos
The suborder of lizards is divided into six infraorders, including 37 families. We present one entertaining species from each infra-detachment.
- Iguanas . The most famous representative iguana is Yemen chameleon. The species is distinguished by its large size among chameleons. Males reach a length of 60 cm. Characteristic feature representatives of this family have the ability to mimicry. They change body color for camouflage purposes. The Yemen chameleon turns brown when threatened. However, do not expect bright colors from it - for such a spectacle you will have to take a closer look at other species.
- Skinks . The Crimean lizard is found in Moldova, Black Sea Russia (Republic of Crimea), the Balkan Peninsula and the Ionian Islands. It reaches twenty centimeters in length. The color is brown or green with dark rows of longitudinal spots. It has the ability to shed its tail and grow a new one, like all representatives of the True lizard family.
- Monitor lizards . In addition to extinct sea predators The mosasaurian infraorder also includes the largest modern lizard - the Komodo dragon, which grows up to three meters in length and reaches a weight of more than 80 kg. IN early age They feed on eggs, birds, and small animals. Over time, they move on to larger prey. At once komodo dragon able to eat an amount of meat equal to 80% of its own weight. Thanks to its elastic stomach and movable bone joints, this species swallows an animal the size of a goat whole.
- Gecko-like. Madagascar day gecko or green felsuma is one of the largest representatives of his family. Individuals of this species reach up to 30.5 cm in length. The color is bright green. Most Their lives, not exceeding ten years, are spent on trees in search of insects, fruits and flower nectar, which constitute the main diet of green felsum.
- Vermiformes . Representatives of the vermiform infraorder bear little resemblance to lizards familiar to the average person. A typical representative - the American worm-like lizard - has no legs, no eyes, no ears. The animal does not even resemble a snake, but rather earthworm, however, they are not related to the latter. American worm-like lizards lead a burrowing lifestyle, representing another amazing branch of lizard evolution.
- Fusiformes . Representatives of this infra-detachment also decided to give up their extra limbs. Breaking the spindle, or the copperhead is often confused with the copperhead snake from the family Colubridae. This species of lizard is easily tamed by humans and lives in captivity twice as long as in the wild, being protected from natural enemies.
Lizard Reproduction
With rare exceptions, lizards reproduce sexually. Otherwise, parthenogenesis occurs, in which the offspring develops from the female’s egg without the participation of a male. All lizards are oviparous. However, some of them lay shelled eggs, from which hatchlings emerge after a while. Other species are ovoviviparous. The young hatch from the eggs just before leaving the female's body. Representatives of lizard species that are small in size die immediately after laying eggs or giving birth to their young.
Reproduction in captivity requires maintaining a calm environment for the animals, as stress significantly reduces the reproductive function of lizards.
Sometimes determine different kinds lizards are possible, based on their name and photo. However, some related species are so similar that only a specialist can recognize them. Looking at other lizards, an uninitiated person will completely rank them among other groups of animals. Biological studies of family relationships between representatives of this suborder of reptiles.
The types of lizards, names and photos of their subspecies are of interest not only to professional herpetologists and terrariumists, but also to everyone who likes to observe the nature of our planet, marveling at the amazing diversity of the animal world. The diversity of lizards, from blind burrowing creatures to three-meter predatory giants, is only an echo of the former greatness of this group, when ancient mosasaurs roamed the oceans. Largest species of this extinct family - Hoffmann's mosasaurus - could reach a length of almost twenty meters and was the king of the sea predators of the end Cretaceous period. Impressive lizard, isn't it?
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