Leaping Lizards

Just like sunbathers on beaches all over the world lizards love to lie in the sun all day. At night they hide near rocks and other vegetation. They are reptiles with characteristic traits of snakes forked tongues and scales. Lizards have claws to help them climb, dig and defend themselves. Often their tails are longer than their bodies and they use them to balance, climb, and for protection. There are 4,675 species of lizard and they can live up to 50 years.

Interesting lizard facts:

Lizards don't use their noses for to smell but their tongues

They have moveable eyelids to blink with

Up to 60% of their body fat is in the tail

When their legs come in touch with hot surfaces they do a dance-like movement

Just under their skin are their ears with visible openings

Antarctica is the only continent that has no lizards

After a female lizard lays eggs she doesn't stay around to protect them

Komodo Dragons

Komodo Dragons are the largest lizards ten feet in length and weighing 300 pounds. These lizards make their home in Indonesia. Young Komodo dragons are only 18 inches long and for several months live in trees while they grow. Adult Komodo dragons are known to eat their young and other dragons however, their typical diet is carrion the bodies of dead animals. They also eat pigs, deer, and cattle and have been known to attack and eat humans. Komodo dragons don't always capture live prey but give it their venomous bite preventing blood clotting and the prey goes into shock and bleeds to death. These lizards are endangered and it is illegal to have one as a pet.

Water Monitors

Water Monitors make their home in Malaysia in Southeast Asia. They grow to a length of 9.8 feet. They are ferocious lizards that can swim underwater for long periods. They diet on crab and other invertebrates, When on land water monitors will climb trees to see what they can find in birds' nests. Since they are not timid they have been spotted in urban areas eating roadkill. Water monitors have sharp claws with long necks and tails. They use their tails as weapons. Male water monitors wrestle standing on their hind legs and engage in fights with other monitors. When one is knocked to the ground, the match is over and the one left standing is the winner.

Tree Crocodiles

Tree Crocodiles range in length from 7 - 9 feet but some can be as long as 16 feet. Their tails are the longest part of their bodies making up for half their length. These lizards like to dine on carrion, small reptiles, mammals, and bird eggs. They have snake-like tongues which they use when searching for prey and use their tails as whips. Once prey is caught their serrated teeth slice up and tear meat similar to crocodiles. It is unfortunate for tree crocodiles that they are valuable for both their meat and skin.

Perenties or Goannas

Perenties make their home in Australia and Komodo dragons are their relatives. They are 8.2 feet in length and weigh 44 pounds. They live up to 40 years in the wild and in the colder months, they hibernate. When approached by a predator they will raise their heads and hiss to scare it. Perenties use their tails as whips and if none of their tactics works they turn and run. These lizards dine on turtle eggs, insects, birds, other reptiles, small mammals, and marsupials.

Nile Monitors

Nile Monitors are native to Africa. They are the sixth-largest lizard and are 8 feet long and weigh 44 pounds. Their diets include crabs, crayfish, mussels, snails, slugs, termites, caterpillars, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers and crickets, fish, frogs, toads, lizards, turtles, snakes, young crocodiles, and other reptiles, birds and their eggs, and small mammals. Nile monitors enjoy basking in the sun on rocks and tree branches, They have been spotted as high as 6,560 feet above sea level. They mature at two years of age female monitors begin laying eggs. They deposit them in a burrow with 12 - 60 eggs at a time.

Lace Monitors

Lace Monitors are dark in color and have cream to yellowish lace-like patterns. These help the lizards to camouflage from predators. They are the second-largest lizards in Africa and can weigh up to 31 pounds. Their forked tongues help them with smell and taste letting them know where predators are. Lace monitors use their tails for balance while climbing and for whipping as defence and for swimming. Female monitors dig the side of a termite mound and lay 6 - 12 eggs. When the termites rebuild their mound the eggs are protected and kept at a constant temperature, Females dig out the hatched eggs at about seven months.

Blue Iguanas

Blue iguanas are blue to grey-blue in color. They grow to be 5 feet in length and weigh 31 pounds. Their coloring helps with camouflage among nearby rocks and the scrub of Grand Cayman Island. These are adaptable lizards that live in dry, rocky forests with prickly foliage or in the moist areas of woodland forest, dry to subtropical or semideciduous forests, They prefer to dine on leafy greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, fungi, insects, soil, excrement, leaves, stems, fruits, and flowers. Blue iguanas bask in the sun during the day and hide in rock crevices or in caves at night. Their lifespan is 25 - 40 years and they become sexually mature at 4 - 9 years. The lizards breed in spring, April - June and once mated a female iguana becomes aggressive and territorial. Up to 20 eggs will be buried one foot deep and mature in 60 - 90 days.

Galapagos Land Iguanas

Galapagos Land Iguanas are native to the Galapagos. They are 5 feet in length and weigh 28 - 30 pounds, Their coloring is yellow with white, black, and brown blotches. They have short heads and powerful hind legs with sharp claws. They are mostly herbivores enjoying prickly pear fruit and leaves. Land iguanas have a lifespan of 50 years. After mating females will burrow and bury between 2 and 20 eggs. The babies will dig their way out once hatched.

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas are the only lizards to swim in the ocean around the Galapagos Islands. They have short blunt noses so they can feed off the marine algae and seaweed. Their claws help them stay on the ocean floor and they can swim with their flattened tails. Marine iguanas can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes and dive as deep as 65 feet underwater. When food is sparse they can lose up to 20% of their size. In this way, they can survive on less food and stay healthy. Marine iguanas are generally black but with maturity, their color changes and their coloring includes red and black, green, red, and grey. They live up to 50 years.