Sentences with phrase «wall lizards»

Resting out in the open on rocks can be a risky business for Aegean wall lizards.

Russell Burke, a biologist at Hoftstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., who has studied Italian wall lizards in the U.S., says the species would be «at least as good as, and possibly better than» other bio-indicators, such as mice and plants.

Thanks to the buffet of fish scraps and bird poo provided by the resident seagull colony, living conditions for wall lizards on the tiny island of Diavates, in Greece's Aegean Sea, are good.

Species: Skyros wall lizards (Podarcis gaigeae) Habitat: A small number of Greek islands on the Aegean Sea

The urge to eat each other is so strong in giant wall lizards that they even tried their luck on other fully grown adults.

Using models that replicated the colouration of male and female wall lizards found on the Greek islands of Skopelos and Syros, they found that the male lizard models were less well camouflaged against their habitat and more likely to fall prey to bird attacks.

The small Greek island of Diavates, for example, is home to supersized wall lizards with a taste for the meat of younger specimens.

Most animals don't start fights with other species as there's simply no point — but nobody told the slap - happy Dalmatian wall lizard

Different stress levels will make wall lizards from a group of Aegean islands flee or drop their tails — and it all depends on who they grew up with

Wall lizards often are a locally abundant species, one trait that «would make them useful as bio-indicators,» says biologist Bruce Kingsbury, director of the Center for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation and Management at Indiana University — Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Environmental scientists from the University of Siena in Italy analyzed wall lizards captured at four sites downwind from the Monte Alpi Oil Center in Val d'Agri, an area in Italy's southern Apennine mountains that holds substantial oil reserves.

«Results obtained validate, for the first time, [the Italian wall lizard] as a terrestrial bio-indicator for the assessment of the toxicological impact of onshore extraction activity,» the researchers wrote in their paper published online in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Dr. Paul Tafforeau (head of the ID19 beamline, ESRF) recalls «a team came to study the inner ear of modern lizards and after their experiment they were looking at a 3D reconstruction of a common wall lizard.

However, it is not entirely a tale of woe for the male Aegean wall lizard.

But Aegean wall lizards have a different strategy.

To pick out the right rocks, Aegean wall lizards must have an awareness of what color they are.

Aegean wall lizards are the first wild animals to be observed explicitly choosing the best background for their particular coloration to disappear into.

On Skyros, the wall lizards still attack youngsters — as many lizard species do — but this usually involves nibbling off a stray toe or tail.

Aegean wall lizards, which are widespread across the South Balkans and many Greek islands, are unable to do this.

He says, however, because they are small and easy to keep in captivity — unlike wild mice, which are notoriously difficult to maintain in cages — wall lizards would make a good model species for experiments designed to determine the effects of toxins on mortality, reproduction and growth.

Now there's the lizard on the wall Researchers have found that wall lizards may be reliable early detectors for toxins and other pollutants from onshore oil drilling activity.

But for Erhard's wall lizard, found across Greece's Cyclades islands, its tendency to jettison the tail — and indeed its tolerance for disturbance — depends on which island it lives on.

Wood and steel structure with wire mesh, warming lamps, electric cable, insects (African millipedes, house crickets, goliath beetles, hissing cockroaches, lubber grasshoppers, and stag beetles), leopard geckos, and Italian wall lizards, 150 x 270 x 160 cm Guggenheim Abu Dhabi © Huang Yong Ping.