Green Means Stop With these Lizards

Bocage's wall lizard, Podarcis bocagei, is endemic (only found in) the Iberian Peninsula. These are small lizards with their snout to vent (area before the base of their tail) length of 2.8 inches. Their tails can be around twice their body length. These lizards are typically grey or greyish brown but males can sometimes have green on their backs like the individual you’re looking for.

Quick fact a major difference in snakes and lizards is that snakes have longer bodies and shorter tails while lizards have shorter bodies and longer tails.

These lizards are speedy and they are active foragers (they move around and hunt their prey vs sitting and waiting for prey to come along. Like most lizards that eat insects, they’ll eat whatever insects they can catch and fit in their mouths.

Most interestingly some females of this species develop a green back during the reproductive season like the males. However this was only observed in gravid (carrying fertilized eggs) females. This Galan 2000 hypothesizes that this may be to reduce harassment from males. It can be triggered by hormonal changes from ovulation and fertilization. These findings suggest that the green color plays an important role in lizard communication.

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