Oak Woodlands
Home
Seedlings
Gophers
Annual Weeds
Cattle
Deer
Life
in Mature Trees
"Spanish
Moss"
Mistletoe
Leaping Lizards
Diseases,
Decline
Sudden Oak Death
Insects
Fire
Key
to Oak Species
Restoration
Planting
Trees
Climate Change
Leaping Lizards!!
You might
wonder what lizards have to do with oaks. Well, one of the most common
vertebrates in the inland 
coastal
oak woodlands is the western fence lizard. You can learn more about the
lizard in the Hastings website section on reptiles. Basically, these lizards
(Sceloporus occidentalis) lived on trees before they lived on
fences. Very agile in trees, and almost indestrctable, they can leap and
land in the litter beneath a tree without being harmed. We have actually
seen western fence lizards come crashing to the spongy leaf litter beneath
coast live oaks and other oaks. The same individual can be caught under
a few adjacent trees over and over during a summer in a trap (large plastic
bucket) that the lizards clearly could not climb into from the outside.
We think they are chasing bugs to eat and the occasional lunge at prey
goes bad, and they launch themselves into the great blue yonder. Of course,
they may just want to get the ground fast.
The males have blue bellies during the breeding season. Females lay eggs that hatch into what look like tiny adults. They eat a wide variety of insects and may only live in 2-3 trees during their entire lives. An adult may live 3 years. Cats around houses can eliminate these lizards, and the loss of these lizards, especially around a house, may have health implications for the owners
Western Fence Lizards can reduce the incidence of Lyme Disease in their range! It has recently been discovered that when infected ticks feed on the blood of these lizards, the Lyme disease spirochetes they carry are destroyed. In areas with Western Fence Lizards, about 5 percent of ticks carry the disease, while in other areas 50 percent of ticks harbor the disease.
Knops, J. M. H., W. H. Schlesinger, et al. (1993). "Arboreal sprint failure: Falling lizards in California blue oak woodlands." Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 74(2 SUPPL): 313.
Lane, R. S. (1990). "Protection from Lyme disease in California. ." Cooperative Extension Notes 7189: 1-2.