Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Western Fence Lizard[ Male]

(Scleroporus occidentalis)

Description:

This is a Western Fence Lizard. i classified it as a male because of the bluish coloration on its back . A female lacks this bluish coloration. http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?searc...... Studies have shown that Lyme disease is lower in areas where the lizards occur. When ticks carrying Lyme disease feed on these lizards' blood (which they commonly do, especially around their ears), a protein in their blood kills the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. The ticks' blood is therefore cleansed and no longer carries Lyme disease.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

9 Comments

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 11 years ago

Looks like this is " Sceloporus occidentalis taylori"
As with other wild life looks like we have several sub species of th eWestern Fence Lizard.

CindyBinghamKeiser
CindyBinghamKeiser 12 years ago

Beautiful colors on this one!

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

Studies have shown that Lyme disease is lower in areas where the lizards occur. When ticks carrying Lyme disease feed on these lizards' blood (which they commonly do, especially around their ears), a protein in their blood kills the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. The ticks' blood is therefore cleansed and no longer carries Lyme disease.

oxyjack
oxyjack 12 years ago

Beautiful shot, the blue scales really show up nicely here.

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

1Sarah2,Thanks so much for the link that you had provided for the female. It took me only a second to ID this!!

1Sarah2
1Sarah2 12 years ago

What a nice teal coloration. I wasn't sure what shade of blue it would be. No doubt the cat wasn't too sure what to make of him.

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

Thanks Alice. He was basking in the sun. The cat just sat next to him,watching for a long time.

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 12 years ago

Nice Lizard.

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/686...
This is my spotting of a female . You can clearly see the difference in coloration.

HemaShah
Spotted by
HemaShah

Concord, California, USA

Spotted on Jul 23, 2011
Submitted on Jul 23, 2011

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Texas Spiny Lizard Texas Spiny Lizard (Again) Western Fence Lizard (Yet another) Texas Spiny Lizard

Nearby Spottings

The Tawny Grey Lily Poppy poppy Daisy
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team