Wall lizard

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Wall lizard
Wall lizard (Podarcis muralis)

Wall lizard ( Podarcis muralis )

Systematics
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
Family : Real lizards (Lacertidae)
Subfamily : Lacertinae
Genre : Wall lizards ( Podarcis )
Type : Wall lizard
Scientific name
Podarcis muralis
( Laurenti , 1768)

The wall lizard ( Podarcis muralis ) belongs to the class of reptiles (Reptilia), the family of the real lizards (Lacertidae) and to the genus of the wall lizards ( Podarcis ). It was developed by the German Society for Herpetology and Terrarienkunde the reptile of the year proclaimed 2011th

features

A pair of the subspecies "Italian Wall Lizard", Podarcis muralis nigriventris

The wall lizard reaches a total length of 25 centimeters. It is slim and often appears relatively flattened in the dorsal area due to its length. The collar is usually smooth-edged, the back scales are slightly keeled. The tail can reach twice the length of the head and torso. The back color is light to medium brown or gray, sometimes also greenish. What is striking is an irregular, blackish speckle that sometimes forms a reticulated pattern. The underside is very variable in color, from whitish to yellowish to red and from unspotted to heavily spotted or spotted. Depending on their origin, the animals can vary greatly in body color and drawing patterns, which means that the animals are sometimes difficult to identify. Numerous subspecies exist in southern and southeastern Europe in particular.

habitat

The wall lizard colonizes a wide range of biotopes . The animals prefer to be found on areas exposed to the southeast or southwest. In these biotopes, the morning or afternoon sun is optimally used.

The lizards that live in the cavities of the walls use this shelter both to protect against the cold at night and to protect against the extremely high temperatures during the midday heat in midsummer. Rocks and walls with evenly distributed open joints and crevices are generally favorable. On the one hand, the animals prefer wall surfaces with diverse vegetation, which attract plenty of insects, and, on the other hand, bare areas where they can sunbathe. A small amount of wall growth can be compensated for by adjoining natural growth at the foot of the wall. An influence of the wall height on the settlement by the lizards is not known. Wall lizards that live near castle ruins basically use the entire wall surface. The same applies to the settlement of rock faces and scree areas. As a typical cultural successor , the wall lizard can also be found in vineyards, on railway and road embankments as well as on buildings in settlements and cities. Occasionally, the species also occurs on open, vertical rock surfaces in quarries.

The wall lizard is always diurnal. She is very nimble and climbs very well. The clutch is placed under stones or in small, self-dug corridors. It includes two to ten eggs. With favorable living and environmental conditions, two to three annual clutches are possible. The young hatch after about six weeks from late June to early August.

Natural spread

Distribution area
Wall lizards mating

The wall lizard is distributed from north, north-east and central Spain eastwards across central Europe and the Balkan countries to the west coast of the Black Sea . The natural limit of distribution in the north is reached on the Channel Island of Jersey , in northern France, southern Belgium and in the south of the Netherlands. In Germany, the species occurs mainly in the southwest in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate . Favorable climatic slopes on the Rhine , Neckar , Moselle , Nahe , Lahn , Rur and Ahr are preferred. Further occurrences exist in Hessen and Saarland . In North Rhine-Westphalia the species occurs naturally in the Rhine Valley near Bonn and in the Eifel .

Naturalizations

The many naturalizations and displacements outside, but also within their natural range, are remarkable. Examples of non-local populations can be found in Germany (including Duisburg, Bochum, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Bonn, Bielefeld, Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Aschaffenburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Halle (Saale), Donauwörth, Kelheim, Passau and Freiburg). The northernmost deposit, which arose from exposure, is in Bramsche - Ueffeln . The occurrence in the Donauleiten nature reserve near Passau is the largest allochthonous occurrence in Germany. It emerged from the release of the wall lizard of the subspecies maculiventris from 1932 in the Donauleiten, which with 4,000 to 6,000 lizards now spread over 25 km along the Danube and in side valleys. In Austria there were documented naturalizations in Linz , Schärding , Schlögen and Klosterneuburg until 2008 . At Klosterneuburg train station, the population known since the late 1990s, which was probably brought in with timber transports, spread to 1.5 km of railway lines by 2008. The 2008 population of 130 in Linz goes back to a release in 1932 on the banks of the Danube . In Switzerland, in addition to natural occurrences in the west and south, there are naturalized populations, although in areas with autochthonous occurrences there are also allochthonous populations or the populations are mixed. In Switzerland there are many allochthonous populations on train station premises. Many people probably got to the station grounds, such as Zurich's main train station , by freight traffic. The largest naturalized population in Switzerland with around 3,000 wall lizards is said to live on the grounds of Zurich's main train station.

In Liechtenstein there is a large distribution of animals released in the 1960s, which especially colonize the Rhine dam and railway embankments. In France there is an allochthonous population of railway facilities near Halluin , which is presumably due to rail traffic. In 2008 there were five occurrences in the Netherlands and 11 occurrences in Belgium. In the south of Great Britain in 2008 there were 13 naturalized occurrences u. a. in Portland, Bournemouth, Ventnor and Shoreham-by-Sea. Outside of Europe, in 2008 there were occurrences in Canada (area around Victoria, Vancouver Island) and in the USA. Cincinnati and the surrounding area, Ohio, Clarksville (Indiana), Fort Thomas (Kentucky) are mentioned there.

A wall lizard

Hazard and protection

The measures taken in recent years to clean up the vineyards have led to regional losses in the wall lizard population. There are also problems on climbing rocks, where the habitat in the entry area of ​​climbing routes or by "sweeping out" of loose scree or rocky vegetation is degraded or lost. Examples of such problems of wall lizards in climbing areas are the nature reserve (NSG) "Buntsandsteinfelsen in the Rur valley between Heimbach and Kreuzau " in the Eifel and the Stenzelberg quarry in the NSG Siebengebirge near Bonn . Since today the largest populations of the species north of the Alps live on railway station grounds, they are also threatened with dangers from tightened maintenance measures or from the rededication and reuse of such areas that are hardly protected by nature conservation law. In the run-up to such interventions , resettlement measures are repeatedly addressed as a precedent compensation measure under nature conservation law (so-called CEF measure ) and also practiced every now and then. However, this is sometimes viewed critically by experts. At Zurich main station, the Swiss Federal Railways have laid gravel and sand strips to protect the population and installed mesh baskets with stones for wintering.

Legal protection status

National Red List classifications (selection)

  • Red list of the Federal Republic of Germany: V - warning list
  • Red List of Austria: EN (endangered)
  • Red list of Switzerland: LC (not endangered)

Literature (selection)

  • Luisa Amo, Pilar López, José Martín: Nature-based tourism as a form of predation risk affects body condition and health state of Podarcis muralis lizards. In: Biological Conservation. Vol. 131, No. 3, 2006, pp. 402-409, doi: 10.1016 / j.biocon.2006.02.015 .
  • Josef Blab, Petra Brüggemann, Harald Sauer: Spatial integration and biotope use for reptiles and amphibians in the Drachenfelser Ländchen (= animal world in the civilized landscape . Vol. 2 = series of publications for landscape management and nature conservation. H. 34). Federal Research Institute for Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology -Writings-Distribution in the Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1991, ISBN 3-88949-175-8 .
  • Christian Chemla: Survival versus free time: Wall lizards and climbing on the Stenzelberg in the Siebengebirge FFh area. In: Circular letter on the herpetofauna of North Rhine-Westphalia. No. 26, 2005, ZDB -ID 2397998-7 , pp. 27-30.
  • Ralf Dexel: On the ecology of the wall lizard Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768) (Sauria: Lacertidae) at its northern boundary. II. Population structure and dynamics. In: Salamandra . Vol. 22, No. 4, 1986, pp. 259-271.
  • Klemens Fritz: The importance of anthropogenic sites as a habitat for the wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), illustrated using the example of the southern Upper Rhine and western High Rhine valleys. In: Jochen Hölzinger , Günter Schmid (Ed.): The amphibians and reptiles of Baden-Württemberg (= supplements to the publications for nature conservation and landscape management in Baden-Württemberg. 41). Karlsruhe 1987, ISBN 3-88251-089-7 , pp. 427-462.
  • Michael Gruschwitz, Wolfgang Böhme : Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768) - wall lizard. In: Wolfgang Böhme (Hrsg.): Handbook of the reptiles and amphibians in Europe. Volume 2 / II: Lizards (Sauria). III: Lacertidae III: Podarcis. Aula-Verlag, Wiebelsheim 1986, ISBN 3-89104-001-6 , pp. 155-208.
  • Ralph Haberbosch, Gottfried May-Stürmer: Ecological demands of the wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) on vineyard walls in the Heilbronn district. In: Jochen Hölzinger, Günter Schmid (Ed.): The amphibians and reptiles of Baden-Württemberg (= supplements to the publications for nature conservation and landscape management in Baden-Württemberg. 41). Karlsruhe 1987, ISBN 3-88251-089-7 , pp. 407-426.
  • Jürgen Klünder, Doris Siehoff (ed.): Nature conservation concept for the red sandstone cliffs in the Rurtal (= series of publications "Nature conservation in the Düren district". Issue 1, ZDB -ID 2000084-4 ). Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany - Kreisgruppe Düren u. a., Düren 1997.
  • Gustav Kramer : Information on the reproduction and development of wall lizards. In: Senckenbergiana. Vol. 20, 1938, ISSN  0341-4078 , pp. 66-80.
  • Rainer Kollar: The meaning of the mating march from Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768). In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Series B: botany, zoology. Vol. 87, 1983, ISSN  0255-0105 , pp. 69-81, digital version (PDF; 2.5 MB) .
  • Hubert Laufer, Michael Waitzmann, Peter Zimmermann: Wall lizard Podarcis muralis (LAURENTI 1768). In: Hubert Laufer, Klemens Fritz, Peter Sowig: The amphibians and reptiles of Baden-Württemberg. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8001-4385-6 , pp. 577-596.
  • P. Licht, HE Hoyer, PGWJ van Oordt: Influence of photoperiod and temperature on testicular recrudescence and body growth in the lizards, Lacerta sicula and Lacerta muralis. In: Journal of Zoology. Vol. 157, No. 4, 1969, pp. 469-501, doi: 10.1111 / j.1469-7998.1969.tb01716.x .
  • Ulrich Schulte: The wall lizard. Successful in tow with people. Laurenti-Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-933066-36-7 .
  • Ulrich Schulte, Kerstin Bidinger, Guntram Deichsel, Axel Hochkirch , Burkhard Thiesmeier, Michael Veith : Distribution, geographical origin and nature conservation aspects of the allochthonous occurrence of the wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) in Germany. In: Journal of Field Herpetology. Vol. 18, No. 2, 2011, ISSN  0946-7998 , pp. 161–180, summary (PDF; 14 kB) .
  • Ulrich Schulte, Michael Veith, Axel Hochkirch: Rapid genetic assimilation of native wall lizard populations ( Podarcis muralis ) through extensive hybridization with introduced lineages. In: Molecular Ecology. Vol. 21, No. 17, 2012, pp. 4313-4326, doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-294X.2012.05693.x .

Web links

Commons : Wall Lizard  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reptile of the Year 2011: The Wall Lizard. (No longer available online.) DGHT, archived from the original on December 16, 2010 ; Retrieved December 10, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dght.de
  2. ↑ Ulrich Schulte: The wall lizard. Successful in tow with people. Laurenti-Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, p. 34 ff
  3. ^ Frank Nagel: Wall lizards in Dresden. April 11, 2011, accessed February 12, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Ulrich Schulte & Guntram Deichsel (2015): Wall lizards introduced in Germany - an overview with recommendations on how to deal with nature conservation. Mertensiella 22: 75-85.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Schulte: The wall lizard. Successful in tow with people. Laurenti-Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, p. 55 ff
  6. ↑ Urs Bühler: The wall lizard initiated the Mediterraneanization of Zurich decades ago. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 13, 2019, accessed April 25, 2020 .
  7. ↑ The Zurich Gleisfeld is a biotope for endangered animals SBB Homepage
  8. ↑ Ulrich Schulte: The wall lizard. Successful in tow with people. Laurenti-Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, p. 54 ff
  9. ↑ http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/reptiles/common-wall-lizard Common Wall Lizard on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources homepage
  10. ↑ Nature conservation concept for the red sandstone cliffs in the Rurtal (PDF; 2.3 MB). Series of publications on nature conservation in the Düren district, issue 1. Ed .: BUND / NABU (1997), 3rd edition 2007
  11. ↑ Martin Lindner, Gisbert Lütke, Ralf Jakop, Doris Siehoff: The conflict between climbing and nature conservation in North Rhine-Westphalia (Part 2). Annual Report 2009 Working Group Peregrine Falcon Protection of NABU NRW: 18-22
  12. ↑ Endangerment and protection of the wall lizard. Field Herpetology Working Group in the DGHT German Society for Herpetology and Terrarium Science, accessed on October 26, 2015
  13. ↑ The Zurich Gleisfeld is a biotope for endangered animals SBB Homepage
  14. ↑ Wall Lizard at www.wisia.de
  15. ↑ Wall lizard. Internet manual reptiles of the BfN Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 26, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ffh-anhang4.bfn.de
  16. ↑ Klaus-Detlef Kühnel, Arno Geiger, Hubert Laufer, Richard Podloucky & Martin Schlüpmann: Red list and list of total species of reptiles in Germany. P. 231–256 in: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Hrsg.): Red list of endangered animals, plants and fungi in Germany 1: Vertebrates. Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-7843-5033-2
  17. ↑ Online overview at www.amphibienschutz.de
  18. ^ Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Ed.): Red Lists of Endangered Animals Austria. Checklists, risk analyzes, need for action. Part 2: reptiles, amphibians, fish, moths, molluscs Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77478-5