Forest lizard
| Forest lizard | ||||||||||||
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Forest lizard ( Zootoca vivipara ), male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Zootoca | ||||||||||||
| Wagler , 1830 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Zootoca vivipara | ||||||||||||
| ( Lichtenstein , 1823) |
The forest lizard ( Zootoca vivipara , syn .: Lacerta vivipara ), also called mountain lizard or bog lizard , belongs to the class of reptiles and to the family of real lizards (Lacertidae). The newly established genus Zootoca is monotypical , so it only consists of this one species. In 2006 it was named Reptile of the Year by the German Society for Herpetology and Terrarium Science . This was intended to bring the “most successful” reptile species in the world (measured by its wide distribution) into public awareness.
features
The forest lizard has a total length of a maximum of 18 centimeters. Of these, up to six, in females up to seven centimeters on the head and trunk. The strong tail reaches 1.25 to twice the length of the head and torso (maximum value in males). The species is slender, short-legged and has a small, rather flattened head compared to the sand lizard , for example - even more so in the females than in the males. The so-called collar is strongly serrated and the only 25 to 37 dorsal scales in the transverse direction are very rough and usually keeled. The basic color is brown, sometimes gray. In addition, many animals show a dark "eel line" broken up into individual spots on the back, dark sides and light, line-shaped spots on the upper side (very variable). The throat is whitish or bluish, the belly light or dark yellow; in males orange or less often reddish during the mating season and then often covered with dark spots. The young are very dark - almost blackish - and bronze in color. They measure around 30 to 40 millimeters after birth. Sometimes there are also completely black-colored old animals, so-called black cats.
Relatively “colorful” male sunbathing
Female with poor contrast
Females have a particularly short, flat head.
Forest lizards of different colors and ages, sometimes infested with Ixodes ricinus
Black lizards of the forest lizard are often found on the Großer Feldberg / Taunus .
Well camouflaged as a blackness in the crack
distribution
The Eurasian distribution area of the forest lizard is extremely large and extends from northwest Spain and Ireland in the west to eastern Siberia and the island of Sakhalin in the east and from the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Po Plain, southern Serbia, Bulgaria and northern Kazakhstan in the south. It is the furthest north-penetrating reptile species that reaches the 70th parallel on the Varanger Fjord. The altitude distribution in the Alps goes up to 2200 (3000) meters above sea level .
Habitat and way of life
Moors, heaths, grasslands, abandoned quarries and sand pits, dunes and forest areas and edges in flat, hilly, moor and mountainous areas are populated as habitat. Edge structures, embankments and clearings rich in vegetation are preferred. The species needs more moisture than other lizard species. In case of danger, she also flees into the water and swims through it. The forest lizard is diurnal and mostly true to location. Occasionally, however, it happens that so-called “pioneers” decide to migrate. They are responsible for ensuring that new living spaces are also colonized. The females can mate with several males in a short time. The boys who are born at the same time sometimes have different fathers. Forest lizards are usually viviparous ( viviparous ;. Cf. species name). More precisely, however, it is mostly about ovoviviparous behavior: The two to 12 cubs per female are covered by a soft egg membrane at birth, from which they free themselves after a few minutes or hours. It is less common that they pierce it within the womb (actual viviparity). In southern Europe, for example in the Pyrenees and in the Massif Central, egg-laying forest lizards are also found. The egg-laying forms in southern Slovenia and some neighboring countries (subspecies Zootoca vivipara carniolica ) differ from the others in terms of the number of chromosomes. In 2010 a mixed zone between viviparous / ovoviviparous and oviparous forest lizards was discovered in Austria. The hybrids between the two subspecies Z. v. carniolica and Z. v. vivipara are often fertile and lay eggs, although the young animals are at an advanced stage of development.
The adaptation of the ovoviviparium enables the forest lizard to penetrate into colder habitats, which are denied to the exclusively egg-laying species such as the sand lizard , as they allow their eggs to hatch in a place where they are laid by the heat of the sun. The forest lizard, on the other hand, can actively seek out changing places with the eggs in its stomach and sunbathe there. The birth takes place after about two months of gestation. The young are left to their own devices from day one and learn by trying to differentiate between unsuitable and edible prey. The animals become sexually mature at around two years of age.
Food and predators
Forest lizards feed on spiders , centipedes , grasshoppers , ants , flies , plant lice and cicadas . The exact composition of the food varies depending on the season and the local offer. Smaller prey animals are, after they have been located by hearing and sight, grabbed with their jaws and swallowed whole, larger ones are chewed and the hard chitin shell then spat out again.
The forest lizards, for their part, belong to the prey spectrum of snakes (especially the syntopically occurring species adder and smooth snake ), various birds of prey , martens and wild boars - the latter also dig the forest lizards from their winter quarters. Young animals are sometimes grabbed and eaten by large ground beetles . In the vicinity of human settlements, free-roaming and stray domestic cats are decimating the population of lizards.
Danger
Forest lizard populations are increased through the destruction of lean biotopes (heather, forest edges), through the removal of lying dead wood, stone piles and natural stone walls, through afforestation of areas (important sun spots are lost) and through the use of pesticides in fields and in forests (indirect poisoning through ingestion of contaminated feed animals, lack of prey insects) decimated and displaced.
Legal protection status (selection)
- Habitats Directive : (not listed)
- Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG): particularly protected
- Federal Species Protection Ordinance (BArtSchV): particularly protected
National Red List classifications (selection)
- Red List Federal Republic of Germany: n (not endangered)
- Red list of Austria: NT (threat of danger)
- Red list of Switzerland: LC (not endangered)
literature
- Rainer Günther, Wolfgang Völkl: Waldeidechse - Lacerta vivipara Jacquin, 1787. In: Rainer Günther (Hrsg.): The amphibians and reptiles of Germany. Gustav Fischer, Jena a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-437-35016-1 , pp. 588-600.
Web links
- Zootoca vivipara inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Posted by: Agasyan, A., Avci, A., Tuniyev, B., Crnobrnja Isailovic, J., Lymberakis, P., Andrén, Dan Cogalniceanu, C., Wilkinson, J., Ananjeva, N., Üzüm, N ., Orlov, N., Podloucky, R., Tuniyev, S., Kaya, U., Böhme, W., Nettmann, HK, Crnobrnja Isailovic, J., Joger, U., Cheylan, M., Pérez-Mellado , V., Borczyk, B., Sterijovski, B., Westerström, A. & Schmidt, B., 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- Information about the forest lizard in Austria at www.herpetofauna.at
- Information on the forest lizard in Switzerland at www.karch.ch
- Photos of the forest lizard and its subspecies on www.lacerta.de
- Photos of the forest lizard at www.herp.it
- Information on the “Reptile of the Year 2006” at www.nabu.de.
- Distribution map for Europe at the SEH (packed PDF file; 39.8 MB)
- Forest lizard at www.reptilien-brauchen-freunde.de
- Information at www.natur-in-nrw.de
- Zootoca vivipara in The Reptile Database
Individual evidence
- ↑ D. Lindtke, W. Mayer & W. Böhme (2010): Identification of a contact zone between oviparous and viviparous common lizards (Zootoca vivipara) in central Europe: reproductive strategies and natural hybridization . Salamandra 46 (2), pp. 73-82
- ↑ Forest Lizard at www.wisia.de
- ↑ Online overview at www.amphibienschutz.de
Forest Lizard (2006) | Common Garlic Toad (2007) | European tree frog (2008) | Dice Snake (2009) | Pond newt (2010) | Wall Lizard (2011) | Common Toad (2012) | Smooth Snake (2013) | Yellow-bellied toad (2014) | European pond turtle (2015) | Fire Salamander (2016) | Slow Worm (2017) | Common Frog (2018) | Mountain Newt (2019)