Hi Francis. Your remarks about UV lights are quite interesting. I've read deVosjoli recommending extra UV lighting for Uromastyx which are obviously also sunlovers, but now you've got me wondering about lacertids.
When I kept Timon and Podarcis I didn't notice them being unusually inactive on just one full-length UV light, but I didn't have your experience of wild lacertids to draw on.
Hi there!
I am also a fan of de Vosjoli, he has some nifty books and articles - but then I am biased because I love naturalistic setups...
To be honest I've found of all the lacertids
Timon lepidus are among the best for keeping indoors, they just seem hardier without sunlight than other members of the family... although I would obviously still recommend plenty of bright light for them too if at all possible!
Smaller species wouldn't necessarily seem particularly inactive indoors - they'll still bask, hunt and eat like other lizards - but when you see how fast they can move and how much brighter they can be outdoors you start to comprehend the difference. The way they dart about at super-high speeds can be almost magical - more than once I've had them disappear when I was sure I had my hand over it... there's a world of difference between a wild one and a captive one.
As for wild
Acanthodactylus... I've seen them running on two legs more than once in Spain. These things are so fast they laugh at you! They'll run a few metres, tail in the air, stop and just look at you with the head raised high waiting for you to make another abortive attempt to catch them...
:devil:
I've found activity levels tend to fall in captivity for most active, diurnal lizards, but especially lacertids, agamids and iguanids (don't get me started on agamids - I've seen wild
Agama aculeata move so fast on flat, open sand that it took me ages to figure out what the hell I was looking at...)
I noticed however that P. muralis liked climbing rocks! Whether that was to get closer to the light or just because they live among rocks and walls, I don't know.
Yes,
Podarcis are very agile, the common name "Wall Lizard" comes from their preference for rock faces and other vertical surfaces - some, like
P.muralis and
P. sicula have adapted particularly well to living on buildings, ruins and so on, hence the English moniker. They are often rather conspicuous in places like Spain, Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean destinations.
Most
Podarcis inhabit that "third" vertical dimension to at least some degree...
P. muralis is one of the "generalists" of the group and can adapt to various environments, altitudes etc. quite easily... on more sheer cliffs and rock faces it is usually replaced by the more specialised forms, in Iberia this would be
P. hispanica (amongst others), a rather more delicate and flatter species, but elsewhere in Europe various other members of the genus fulfill the role (or in some places
Podarcis Wall Lizards are replaced by the various Rock Lizards, which are even flatter and more adapted for sheer surfaces and cracks, such as
Iberolacerta,
Anatolacerta, Hellenolacerta and so on...).
Some of these myriad species are extraordinarily beautiful... for me there can be few lizards anywhere that can rival species and subspecies such as
Podarcis muralis nigriventris or
Podarcis pityuensis vedra (this one can be bright blue with a green dorsum! Unfortunately it only lives on an isolated rock outcrop so even good pictures are pretty rare).
One of the reasons I love these species is the possibility of designing very scenic "rock wall" terrariums... I used to painstakingly silicone limestone fragments to the back wall, but having seen some of the threads in the habitat section on making rock walls with polystyrene and grout, I'm dying to try my hand at it... would be perfect for Wall Lizards!
I also agree re Chris Packham's comments. Maybe he's having a midlife crisis of belated punk iconoclasm? On the other hand I did agree with his remarks about "I'm a Celebrity...." (don't get me started on those "reality TV" shows! :lol2
Me too! Big Brother? More like Big Bother... Thank goodness this is the last series... :bash:
Francis
EDIT: Good gracious! Did I just write all that? :lol2: