Marine Prey for Western Fence Lizards

Although, I sometimes lament Los Angeles being mostly dominated by western fence lizards, Sceloporus occidentalis, the more I feature them the more I learn! I never really thought about lizards outside of marine iguanas having marine life be a strong part of their diet.

Researchers in the Puget Sound area looked at the diets of western fence lizards at five beaches. We know these lizards are generalists meaning they don’t only eat one thing. A contrasting example is many horned lizard species specialize in eating ants.

This study found that the western fence lizards they study eat intertidal arthropod prey, small invertebrates that you’d find in tide pools. Which makes sense considering these lizards will eat anything they can find that will fit in their mouths.

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