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Ojai Naturalist

Reptile Report

18/09/07 at 9.53am   /   by Backwoods Bruce   /   0 Comment

I realized that I had not informed you much of the reptile happenings in quite a while. That was because of all the other animal antics that are to be seen here daily, if you are observant enough. There are, however, some interesting stories to tell about the lizards and their interaction with all things in our little habitat here.

In a previous essay from 2016, “Rare Reptiles”, I wrote about my favorite local lizard, Slinker, who is a California whiptail.

Slinker the California whiptail, summer of 2015.

Whiptails are very large lizards and very active during the day. They derived their name from how they use their tails in defense. When a predator sticks its nose close to the lizard, it whips around with its tail and smacks whoever is bothering it right in the nose and then runs off before the animal that’s bothering it recovers. They are very fast lizards. While the whiptail is a smooth scaled lizard over most of its body, the tail scales are somewhat keeled, coming to a point, and that makes the affect on the tender nose of whoever is bothering the lizard that much greater. They are also extremely bold lizards.

Slinker coming for a worm, 2017. Notice the size of that lizard!

Slinker would jump up to take a worm from my hand, which is why I gave him the nickname “Leo the Leaping Lizard” (see essay “Rare Reptiles”). When Slinker showed up in the summer of 2017, he would crawl over my foot and even try to climb my leg! They are not good climbers and he was unable to get any grip on my skin, as I was wearing shorts due to the heat of summer.

Slinker on my lap, 2017

I did try wearing some pants so that he could climb up my leg, however he still could not get enough purchase from the fabric to climb up on my leg. I decided to try a towel instead. Well, it worked! Slinker was in my lap! My only regret is the choice of towel that I used. I really should have searched for something better, oh well. Slinker was not the only California whiptail that we had roaming around in the summers. There were times that I would see two together. It was probably mating time, as one lizard would be following the other. Mostly they are solitary lizards.

I did not see Slinker after the Summer of 2017, however there were other whiptails available to take it’s place. One in particular was a smaller, younger whiptail based on size. As the lizard would wonder the yard in its quest for food, he found the dried mealworms that we put out for the birds. The lizard accomplished this with the help of it’s tongue by touching the ground. I believe the whiptails, and other lizards like the Southern alligator lizard, have a somewhat developed Jacobsen’s organ; they smell with their tongue.

Whiptail eating dried mealworms, 2017.

Since this lizard was now within the range of my live mealworms, it was taking a worm from my hand in no time. This whiptail seems to be a little darker in the front of it’s body with less tan coloring.

Whiptail taking a worm from my hand,2017. What a long tail it has!

There were a few other whiptails that came by from time to time. This only happened during the summer months. Being cold blooded lizards are only active when the weather is warm. While we might see a Western fence lizard during warm spells in the winter, albeit only briefly, we would not see the others. The whiptails and alligator lizards were mostly late spring through summer.

Whiptail licking it’s chops.

Because of the same sensory abilities of their tongues, Southern alligator lizards were the next to find the bird kibble, our name for the dried mealworms that we put out for the birds. I have smelled the dried mealworms myself and think they do have a protein type smell.

Southern alligator lizard eating the dried mealworms.

Alligator lizards can also lose part of their tails. Sometimes it is to get away from predators, sometimes it is in fights with other alligator lizards. The lizard above has had its trimmed a bit, for whatever reason. The original tail is made of bone. The regrowth is of cartilage and as a result does not grow out much.

Alligator lizard with a really stumpy tail.

Both of the alligator lizards above were also hand feeders which is why I could get in so close for a photo of them. The photo below shows an alligator lizard with a nice, full tail. They are large lizards, just about as big as a whiptail.

Southern alligator lizard with all it’s tail.

Going Up.

Alligator lizards are also decent climbers. In 2014 I wrote about an alligator lizard that I was feeding in a jade tree (see essay “Fattening the Lizards for the Snakes”). Well one of the alligator lizards that would feed on the bird food would climb up into a jade tree when he was done eating. They usually spend the night under dense foliage.

Male Western fence lizard.

The lizard species that we see the most here is the Western fence lizard, commonly called a Blue-belly. They perch on rocks and other vantage points and also climb way up into the oaks looking for food. When they spy an insect from their low perch on a rock they will jump down with a belly flop, which you can hear, and run over to capture and devour it. They are very visual hunters and might not have much of a Jacobsen’s organ, if any at all.

Female Western fence lizard.
A baby Blue-belly.

One problem that was occurring during my feeding of the lizards was caused by the bluebirds. They are very aggressive birds and when I would throw out a worm for a lizard the bluebirds would swoop in and grab it first. Even when I would look around and make sure that I did not see a bluebird and then toss the worm out a bluebird would come flying out of nowhere to steal the worm. When I was hand feeding the lizards the problem lessened, however the bluebirds would still make a play for the worm in my hand. In the Western fence lizards the male and female are dissimilar, the males and females look different, so it is easy to tell the sex’s apart. That is not so with the other two lizards I have mentioned. Some behavioral aspects might show some hints as to sex but not by just looking at them. The blue bellies are pretty bold themselves. Even with a bluebird coming in hard the lizard will go for the worm if it thinks it has a chance at it. If I can get the worm close to the lizard it will get it first. Bully for them. The bluebirds were a bit of a pain when it’s lizard feeding time but I have been able to work around that. The Blue-belly lizards helped me out with this problem by moving in on the rocks closer to me. That was cool! I like my animals close to me, the better to observe them. Like our wintering birds we only have the lizards to enjoy for half of the year, however, that is enjoyment enough!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Brawling Bluebellies

16/03/23 at 8.49am   /   by Backwoods Bruce   /   0 Comment

During a very long hot spell in February of 2016 that had the lizards out of their usual winter torpor, I came out of the house to rejoin my wife and backpacking friend Harvey at the table in our north yard.  As I approached the table Harvey pointed out two western fence lizards that he presumed to be mating. Many years back, while on a backpacking trip together in Los Padres National Forest, I had made note of two alligator lizards we came across who were mating. The male grabs the female behind the head to keep her from getting away while mating.  I looked over to the Bluebellies, the common name for western fence lizards in these parts, and saw that it was actually two males and they were fighting each other!  Male western fence lizards maintain territories and will defend them vigorously.  The males will send signals from a distance that consist of doing push-ups with their body puffed up and showing their gular sack under their throat from a high spot in their territory.  These displays do a couple of things, first they advertise to males to stay away and they also show them to any females who might be around and willing to mate.  If there is to be a dispute between two males, they will start approaching each other sideways, standing as tall as they can, puffing out their bodies and gular sacks while curving their tails up and over their backs, if they still have a tail.  Of note here is that western fence lizards can release their tails in order to get away from predators. When the tail is released it is regrown with cartilage rather than bone, as the original was.  Because of that, the tail never fully regrows to its former size.

This is Stumpy, one of the brawlers.

Lizards can also lose their tails in their fights with each other.  As a matter of fact, I have seen dislocated shoulders and missing digits from their feet because of the battles they have.  As they approach each other sideways, they will switch which side is facing their opponent so their heads face in opposite directions.  Sometimes these encounters last only a minute or less as one of the  combatants will sense that it is not big enough or bad enough to win and will run away. Other times it turns to hand to hand fighting.  Usually these last just a few minutes with the smaller,weaker one running away.  This particular encounter was going to prove to be epic!

 

Stumpy and his opponent moving in!

I had wanted to wash my car, but the two males were fighting around where the hose was laying, so I decided to give them a little time to work things out.  I didn’t want to roll the hose over them washing the car.  Well, the fight went on for about fifteen minutes and I really needed to wash my car so I went over to them in order to break up the fight. We had been feeding these lizards by hand for a long time and they were quite comfortable around us (one of the benefits of feeding by hand).  My approach to the lizards did nothing to quell their battle.

The long tailed one seems to have Stumpy’s rear leg in its’ mouth.

With the lizards at my feet, I reached down and picked up Stumpy.  To my amazement he was very warm in my hand.  Reptiles are of course cold blooded and I had never handled a warm reptile.  I was somewhat worried that they would succumb to heat exhaustion.  I returned Stumpy to the ground, and they resumed their contest.  At this point I realized that I should be getting photos of the action, so I went in and grabbed the camera. Sometimes the lizards will bite on the sides of each other and sometimes they try and grab a leg.  When they have a good hold on their opponent they will often roll and flip much like an alligator does with its’ prey.

Stumpy doing an alligator roll!

I ended up taking 61 photos of the lizards battling it out.  This process took about another fifteen minutes and that, added to the original fifteen minutes, had them fighting for a full half hour!  I have witnessed many, many Bluebelly fights and never has one gone on longer than a few minutes at best.  This encounter was incredible and truly epic! What was most incredible though was holding a warm reptile!  I doubt that I will ever experience that again, but hey… who knows?

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

 

A Gopher Snake Saga

16/03/07 at 12.16pm   /   by Backwoods Bruce   /   3 Comments

In a previous essay, “Predators and Prey,” I mentioned some of the mammal predators that we have and in this post I will focus on snakes, specifically gopher snakes.  There are no vegetarian snakes, all are predators.  And just like the other predators they focus on the ground squirrels.  While the smaller gopher snakes will eat reptiles ( see “Fattening Lizards for the Snakes”) and mice the larger ones want larger prey.

My wife with a snake full of baby ground squirrel.

My wife with a snake full of ground squirrel. It’s probably 4 feet long.

We all know that snakes can swallow prey much larger than its head.  Mostly because of its stretchy skin and dislocating jaw.  However, I find it pretty amazing just how far that can take them.  In the photo on the left my wife is gazing at a good sized gopher snake, close to four feet probably, with a baby ground squirrel in it.  We had a preponderance of baby ground squirrels the spring of 2013.  They were jumping all around their burrows when they first started to emerge and that lump in the middle of the snake is the perfect size to be one of them.

Most animals have a certain size limit they will achieve based on their species.  Snakes however can continue to grow their entire lives.  This is the saga of the largest gopher snake that I have had the good fortune to see.

The largest Gopher snake I have seen at a full five and a half feet.

The largest gopher snake I have seen at a full five and a half feet.

I came upon this snake when I returned from errands one day in spring of 2009.  It was out in my driveway headed for my neighbor’s driveway.  My neighbors were out at the time and I did not want the snake to be run over so I moved it to the east side of my north yard along the fence and sat down at my table there.

I fully expected the snake to head off into the east pasture, especially because of my handling it when it was moved. Instead it came right down the fence line, inside the fence line!  Even my walking around him for photos did not deter it. He seemed extremely determined in his quest and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him come through the yard, not to mention all the great photos that I was getting.

The chair gives good scale.

The snake was extremely focused in its endeavors and moved along to the edge of the patio.  As the snake came through it was moving its head back and forth and flicking out its tongue checking out the scents with its Jacobson’s organ.

Using its tongue and Jacobson's organ.

Using its tongue and Jacobson’s organ.

The photo below shows him stretched out.  I used this photo to get an accurate estimate of its length.  It was surely tracking something. Right after this photo he makes a bee line for an area where we had some things stored outside.  The bicycle tire gives good scale for the size of this snake.

A full five and a half feet of Gopher snake.

A full five and a half feet of gopher snake.

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After the snake went into the junk pile,  I went into the house happy with my photos.  About twenty minutes later I came out to check on things.  I went out without my camera as the junk pile was not good photographic material and I already had lots of great photos. As I went to check on the pile I noticed a motion down to my right. It was a baby bush cottontail rabbit squirming around in the clutter.  The snake had been following the trail of the baby rabbit!  Instinctively I picked up the rabbit since it was so small and helpless.  It immediately started squealing for its life!  I let it go outside of the yard.  There was no sign of the snake so I went back in. After about another twenty minutes I went back out to check, again without my camera. Low and behold there is the snake all coiled up right where the baby rabbit had been! And I, without my camera!  Oh well, I had a good story.  However, it does not end there. Five years later, in 2014, I believe that he was here again.  I have really nothing to go on but for his size, which is enormous!

The big boy by our cars in 2014.

The big boy by our cars in 2014.

One day last November, 2015, there was a turkey vulture sitting on a small electrical pole eyeing the field below.  It had been flying around very low, searching.  Turkey vultures are one of the few birds with a sense of smell and locate what they eat with it.  Condors, which cannot smell, will look for turkey vultures circling around food.

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It had been flying around here for a couple of days.  It eventually dropped down into the field southeast of me.  After a bit I saw it dragging something so I went in to get my spotting scope which is just inside the door ready to go.  It was obviously pulling on something very large!  The scope showed it to be a snake, a very large gopher snake!

Turkey vulture with a very large Gopher Snake.

Turkey vulture with a very large gopher snake.

It is surely big enough to be the one that I had seen before.  In the photo to the right the head of the snake is closer to us on the right. Turkey vultures are very large birds which again shows how big that snake was.  I have no idea how that snake died, except that it probably was not a predator because they would have eaten it, not the vulture.

Turkey vulture with gopher snake.

Turkey vulture with gopher snake. The snake’s head is the short end.

I would expect that the snake had a long and happy life, given its size and the area it lived.  All things in our natural world have an expiration date, including the planet.  That is surely a big part of our desire to explore space.  Of course that’s if we don’t destroy our planet first!

Yours in Nature,

Bacwoods Bruce

Rare Reptiles

16/03/01 at 6.32pm   /   by Backwoods Bruce   /   0 Comment

In a previous post, “Fattening Lizards for the Snakes,” I talked about a few of the reptiles that we have including the western fence lizard, southern alligator lizard, gopher snake and common king snake.   I have also had the good fortune to have a couple of first sightings of reptiles here in my little paradise.  One day, while I was raking up oak leaves at the edge of the driveway, what looked to be the lost tail of a lizard wiggling about on the ground (some can shed them to get away from predators) turned out to be something else!  I had thought that I had caught a lizard with the rake and its tail was squirming around.  One problem though, what would be the broken end kept moving around trying to get under something!  Further inspection showed that it was a baby California legless lizard!

My wife holding a baby California Legless lizard.

My wife holding a baby California legless lizard.

 

Adult legless lizards are between 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches.  The first I ever saw was here when we first moved in and it was a full blown adult about as fat as my pinkie.  I have seen one other at this location and it was between the previous two in size, and it was dead. They slither around in soft sand and leaf litter in moister areas around us.

 

 

 

The other first sighting was of a western whiptail juvenile.  I was very aware of the California whiptail and when I first saw this lizard I think I may have written him off as a western skink juvenile, due to the blue tail.  I was editing and cataloging some reptile photos one day when I came across this photo below.

Juvenile Western whiptail. Notice the blue tail.

Juvenile western whiptail. Notice the blue tail.

Whoa, that is just way too many stripes down its back for a skink I thought.  So to my reference manuals I go.

Juvenile Western skink with blue tail.

Juvenile western skink with blue tail.

See the difference?  And it is surely not a California whiptail.  Bingo, new reptile, western whiptail!  I don’t recall ever noticing this lizard before anywhere else.

One species that I have seen very little of before and have had sightings of here of is the brightly colored ringneck snake.

A Ring-necked snake adult.

A ringneck snake adult.

Ringneck snakes forage in the leaf litter and under logs for salamanders and other small reptiles and large insects.  They are not often seen.  They grow to 10 to 30 inches, although the few that I have seen have been less than two feet long, as is this one.

My favorite lizard by far is the California whiptail, for a few reasons.  First, they are very active and easy to observe.  They are also very bold and aggressive.  And last, they move with a gait that is very different from the other lizards, it is kind of slinky.  It also is one of our largest lizards.

A California whiptail.

A California whiptail.

Given their boldness they are easily trained to take meal worms from my hand.  Although all the lizards learn very quickly to do so, the whiptails seem to come over and beg for food.

Me feeding a California whiptail.

Me feeding a California whiptail.

Last summer we had a whiptail coming around a lot to feed which I named Slinker, for the way the whiptails walk.  Slinker was down at my feet where I was sitting, ” Birding Table-North Yard” where I always sit, begging for more food.  I had the thought that Slinker might be aggressive enough to jump for his meal!  Holding a meal worm up so he had to leap to get it, he did!

A California whiptail leaping for a mealworm. It knocked it off and picked it up off the ground.

A California whiptail leaping for a mealworm. It knocked it off and picked it up off the ground. You can see the worm between his arms.

 A Cal. whiptail on my wife's hand.

A California whiptail on my wife’s hand.

 

 

Once we all got our timing down Slinker became extremely adept at snatching the meal worm from our hands.  It became a great game for us, well me anyway, and he got some great food so I’m sure he was happy!

 

 

 

A Cal. whiptail dropping off with a worm in its mouth.

A California whiptail dropping off with a worm in its mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After feeding him for several weeks he was gone.  I do see California whiptails from time to time so I will be sure to try this again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A southern alligator lizard I named Big Red once ran about 15 feet over to me for a worm and western fence lizards will also often run up to you for one, however, Slinker has really amazed me!  I had the odd thought that I could change Slinker’s name to “Leo the Leaping Lizard” and take him on tour but he wouldn’t sign a contract.  Can you believe that!  After all those meal worms, he has to be kidding,right?

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

 

Fattening the Lizards for the Snakes

14/04/28 at 12.15pm   /   by Backwoods Bruce   /   0 Comment

In my previous essay “Feeding the Wild Ones” I mentioned about making the snakes here very happy. This story tells of an inadvertent feeding. At our former residence I found that I could feed the Western fence lizards by hand. I started by throwing out live mealworms to them which quickly led to my feeding them by hand. The lizards will run over to you from several feet away to get a worm, great fun!

Male Western Fence Lizard. Darker bodied with blue spots and a regrown tail.




When we moved to our current residence I found another lizard that I could feed, the Southern alligator lizard. Where we live now is prime habitat for them and we have quite a few of them here. I started by tossing them worms and quickly segued into feeding them by hand. Alligator lizards are generally found in thick, low plants, all the better for hiding. They are not the quickest of lizards but do have a decent bolt from danger. There is also a lot of leaf duff from the oaks in their habitat.

I was concerned about feeding them in that habitat because of the possibility of losing the mealworms down in the leaves, as I often just toss a mealworm out to them. The new ones have to learn to feed by hand. I soon found out that they have excellent hearing. Any worm that got under the leaves was found and eaten! I have also fed one when it would be up in a jade tree. This happened on several occasions, see photo below.

Alligator Lizard in Jade tree. Notice the large ear hole.

Apparently they could hear the mealworms moving underneath the leaves! I lost absolutely no mealworms in the duff; they found them all! Another aspect of their natural history is that, like a lot of lizards, they can lose their tails.

This is a defensive mechanism to help them get away from predators. The predator gets the tail and the lizard gets to live…seems like a good deal to me. I believe they can also lose them in fights with other alligator lizards.

Both these lizards have re-grown tails. I believe that they are males fighting for territory. The lizard in the top is what I call tan and the lower one grey-brown.

The following photos will show some lizards with full tails and some with regrown tails. They will also show some of the three color patterns that I have noticed of them. I call one of them tan, one grey-brown and the last red, which is my favorite.

Tan color alligator lizard with full tail.
Grey-brown color alligator lizard with full tail.

Red color alligator lizard juvenile with regrown tail.

Because the original tail is made of bone and the regrown tail is of cartilage, the regrown tail never returns to it’s former glory. There are also many blue-bellies, mostly males, that have stump tails. Another aspect of the alligator lizards natural history is that it gives live birth. Some locals call them snake lizards. I think that is because the alligator lizard puts its legs against the sides of it’s body when moving through dense brush and wiggles through just like a snake and it also sheds its skin in one piece, just like a snake. All our other lizards shed in patches of skin.

After a couple years of having fun feeding my new friends, the population of alligator lizards increased dramatically. One year, in early summer, I noticed a lot of small gopher and common king snakes. I’m thinking that’s pretty cool!

Young Gopher Snake.
Young Common King Snake.

After about a month I noticed that I was not seeing any of my alligator lizards anymore. I started to realize what may have brought the snakes here, FOOD! King snakes eat other reptiles specifically. What’s a small gopher snake going to eat? Well, reptiles probably. Because I had raised the density of the alligator lizard population the snakes were here hunting!

A VERY young Gopher Snake. Notice the size of the head compared to the body.

They could smell/taste that there was a whole lot of food around here with their Jacobson’s organ (vomeronasal organ) located in their mouth, and they wanted some! They for sure had eaten some and maybe scared the others away, regardless, I never saw any where near the numbers of alligator lizards I had before the snakes showed up. I had inadvertently fed the snakes! Since the lizards had been eaten or dispersed I haven’t been feeding them as much and limited it to a few rather than every one that I see. As a result, I have not seen many snakes around now, at least not like I had that summer! I don’t know about the alligator lizards, but the snakes were dam happy for a while.

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

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