From Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands:
In 2004, in Rotterdam Zoo for the first time a baby Gila monster hatched: a Dutch first. Ever since, the adult Gila monsters regularly produce youngsters. This year, again four were born. The little monsters are about 10 centimeter, and differ from their parents by their reddish colour.ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2009) — A scientist from the University of Salamanca and another from Yale University have shown that the presence of predators affects the behaviour of Acanthodactylus beershebensis, a lizard species from the Negev Desert in Israel. According to the study, these reptiles move less and catch less mobile and different prey if they are under pressure from predators: here.
In White Sands, N.M., two species of traditionally brown lizards have evolved white scales in order to blend in with their environment: here.
Colorful lizard latest exotic to call Southwest Florida home
Impact of Ameiva ameiva not known, but expert says no threat
BY KEVIN LOLLAR • klollar@news-press.com • February 1, 2010
1:10 A.M. — Southwest Florida’s latest non-native reptile, a colorful lizard with many names, was a no-show Friday.
At 9:15 a.m., Mike Knight, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary resource manager, entered the Tarpon Bay community just east of Interstate 75 to search for Ameiva ameiva, also known as green ameiva, jungle runner, dwarf tegu and South American ground lizard.
Knight, who is also Audubon of Florida’s Invasive Species Task Force coordinator, first saw the species in 2005, 1.6 miles east of Tarpon Bay.
“It darted across the road, but I didn’t think anything about it because I thought it could be an escaped pet,” Knight said. “But during the last cold snap, one turned up frozen on a doorstep in Tarpon Bay. And a Corkscrew volunteer who lived there said, ‘Hey, we’ve got these lizards running all over the place. What are they?’ That’s when I realized they had established a population here.”
Knight has since captured two juvenile Ameiva ameivas and photographed an adult, all of which he sent to the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville as vouchers (proof that the species is now in Southwest Florida).
Ameiva ameiva, a native of Central and South America, was first recorded in the United States during the mid-1950s after several escaped from a pet dealer in Miami.
Port of entry
“They’re all over the east coast (of Florida) now,” said herpetologist Kenny Krysko of the Florida Museum. “They’re in Broward County, Miami-Dade County. We have a report from Grassy Key, so they’re in the Keys also.”
Although the species was quickly established on the east coast, it took Ameiva half a century to reach the west coast.
So how did they get here?
Exotic (non-native) species travel from one area to another in two different ways:
- Diffusion dispersal - A population becomes established then expands to other areas; this is how pythons have spread throughout the Everglades and have started moving up the west coast.
- Jump dispersal - A population is established in an area, and then another population pops up in another area, with nothing in between.
Because no continuous population of Ameiva stretches between Miami and Naples, Knight thinks this is a case of jump dispersal.
“This population could have hitchhiked on landscaping plants, or it could have gotten here through the pet trade,” Knight said. “If they hitched a ride, it was a great, big jump. If they came from the pet trade, this is their port of entry.”
Not a threat
As with any exotic species, the question must be asked: How will it affect the environment?
South Florida is full of plant and animal pest exotics, including melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, Old World climbing fern, Nile monitor lizards, pythons and feral hogs.
“People need to know that Ameiva poses no threat to humans,” Knight said. “But the ecological impacts are not fully understood.
“A lot of these things we really don’t know what the impacts are. So we go out and try to document how they affect the environment.”
On Friday morning, however, the new exotic lizard was not cooperative.
A 90-minute search through Tarpon Bay didn’t produce a single Ameiva ameiva.
This month’s cold temperatures might have knocked back the population, Knight said.
Seasonal Tarpon Bay resident Isobel McKenna offered anecdotal evidence of that theory.
“They were here in December, when it was still quite warm,” she said. “I haven’t seen them since. If they were here, my dog would sniff them out, but he can’t catch them: They’re too fast.”
Comment by Administrator — February 1, 2010 @ 6:56 pm