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Year of the Lizard News No Year of the Lizard News No. 5 September 2012 V V V V V V V V V V www.YearoftheLizard.org Keeping Lizards (Happy) in Captivity size of their enclosure, and what type of medical care is needed. However, there are other species available that we know a lot about pertaining to their care, which make excellent pets for those who are committed to their wellbeing. Lizards can make excellent pets for both kids and adults, but it is important that many things are taken into consideration before deciding to own a lizard. In this issue of the Year of the Lizard News, we hope to highlight The charismatic side of lizards from an article in the Daily Mail. the challenges and rewards captive lizards can provide, but also help you to avoid the pitfalls so that you can be Lizards as Pets Bearded Dragon, a responsible and caring lizard owner. Kevin T. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., DVM, by Kirsty Roberts If you are considering a lizard as a DABVP Staff Veterinarian VCA Alameda East Veterinary Hospital Lizards are a fascinating and diverse pet, proper research and resources are Denver, Colorado group of animals found on almost necessary to give you a healthy, safe, Lizards are certainly some of every continent in the world. From and fun-filled experience, for both the most diverse and fascinating the largest, the Komodo Dragon that you and the lizard. reptiles. We first start seeing lizards can reach 10+ feet in length, to the — Brian Aucone, Vice President for in the fossil record about 120 – 125 smallest, the Jarauga Lizard that can Animal Collections, Denver Zoo million years ago. They are the most fit on a dime, humans have always successful reptile, with over 4,400 found them interesting, and in recent Inside: page species identified. Lizards are amazing decades more and more lizards have Photo Contest Calendar 2 and fill a variety of niches. They are been kept privately as pets around the Collared Lizard Video! 2 found in a surprising number of quite world. With this increasing interest Bearded Dragons as Pets 5 differing habitats. Likewise, lizards by the private sector in having lizards display an astonishing assortment as pets comes great responsibility Spotlight: Chinese Croc Lizard 6 of reproductive strategies. They and challenges. All lizards are not Art: Lizards of Italy 9 developed the land-egg which, unlike the same, and each has its own An Interview with Eric Pianka 12 amphibians, freed them from being individual evolutionary history that Year of the Snake Logo, Photos 8, 14 tied to the water for reproduction defines how the lizard needs to be cared for in a captive environment. Featured Lizard Families 15 continued on p. 3 For many species, little is known Lizards in the News 20 Look for Issue No. 6 of about their requirements for such Upcoming Events 21 Year of the Lizard News essentials as food, exposure to UV, in November! “Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment - a little makes the way of the best happiness.” Friedrich Nietzsche (German classical scholar, philosopher and critic of culture, 1844-1900) Year of the Lizard News No. 5, September 2012, p. 2 Get Your September Photo Contest Calendar Chameleons boast some nearly-surreal colors and patterns. Meet Spyro, a Yemen (or Veiled) Chameleon who belongs to winning photographer Jacob-Henry Camps. To get a close-up view of Spyro and the dramatically posed runner-up when you download your monthly calendar from http://parcplace.org/ images/stories/YOL/YearoftheLizardCalendarSeptember. pdf. Call for Photos for the 2012 Year of the Lizard Calendar Photo Contest We are seeking close-up, digital photos of lizards, preferably in their natural habitats or within an educational or conservation context. One winner will be selected each month to be the featured photo as part of the Year of the Lizard online calendar. Runner- Did you miss the August calendar? Download up photos will also be included in the calendar. Additionally, all it anyway, so you can see this beautiful Gilbert’s submitted images will be considered for use in the Year of the Skink, photographed by winner Jackson D. Lizard monthly newsletter and website as well as other Year of Shedd. the Lizard related conservation, outreach, and educational efforts. Give us your best shot! For more information and for entry details, please visit http://www.parcplace.org/images/stories/YOT/ YOLphotocontest.pdf. Runner-up Nathan Gregory brought back the image of this basking pile of Santa Fe Marine Iguanas from the Galapagos. Crunch! Mohave (Great Basin) Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus bicinctores), photographed in action by Tim Torell. Collared Lizards Go Wild for Grasshoppers! You saw it on the calendar, but it’s even better on video! Tim Torell, our winning photographer from February, has put together a great video of Mohave Collared Lizards hunting grasshoppers. These lizards really throw themselves into their work! Check it out, it’s great fun, and you’ll be amazed. The video can be found at: https://vimeo.com/45618351 We hope to post a link on the Year of the Lizard website (www.yearofthelizard.org) soon, and perhaps links to future videos that Tim says are in the works. Year of the Lizard News No. 5, September 2012, p. 3 continued from p. 1: Lizards as Pets pet reptiles are seeking more medical With their very specialized care for their animals than ever before. diet, horned lizards like this one don’t make very good Services that were reserved only for pets, and many species are canine and feline patients are now at risk because of habitat offered routinely to reptiles (blood loss and displacement of work, fecal exams, biopsy, surgery, their prey, native ants, by radiographs, and ultrasound). We as invasive fire ants. Watch them where they live, but veterinarians can provide so much please don’t take them more than even a few decades ago home! Photo by Juan and people have come to expect that. Martinez. (though some retain the eggs inside larger, with a larger cerebrum and the female until birth, and some cerebellum. However, the reptilian are live-bearing, or even reproduce brain is small when compared to via parthenogenesis/“virgin birth”). mammals and comprises less than 1% Many lizard species are capable of of the lizard’s body mass. The lizard tail autotomy or voluntary loss of ear is better developed than their their tail. This enables lizards that amphibian forebears. Lizard vision can do this to distract and confuse is excellent, particularly with regard predators that grab their tail, allowing to movement. These so-called “lower the reptile to successfully escape. vertebrates” have many evolutionary Some Horned Lizards (called “horny modifications and adaptations toads” but actually are lizards) can that show them to be anything but squirt blood from their eyes in an primitive! attempt to discourage predators. Reptile ownership has recently In some lizard species, a parietal been cited as “the fastest growing From Issue 2, Volume 5, of Keeping “eye” is found in the top of the head population of pet animals in the Reptiles Newsletter, “What lizard is (notably Green Iguanas, among United States.” It is estimated that 6% right for you? Things to consider when others). Although it does not form of American homes have a reptile as deciding”. images, this structure does play a a pet. With the exponential increase role in regulation of reproductive in our knowledge base in veterinary Owners of reptiles often form as hormones, thermoregulation, time medicine, with the ever-expanding deep a bond of affection as their dog- spent basking, and hibernation. strengthening of the human-animal and cat-owning counterparts. Many When compared to the brain of bond, and with growing acceptance of reptilian species are exceptionally amphibians or fish, the brain is reptiles being kept as pets, owners of long lived, and with appropriate care can live for decades. Family If you look closely, you can members, particularly children, see the parietal eye in the can show a fascination with reptiles middle of the top of the head (lizards in particular) and become of this Bleached Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni). incredibly bonded to pet reptiles. This animal was photographed in For all the special adaptations listed, the wild by Larry L.C. Jones. lizards can make amazing pets. Let us now examine some of the pitfalls of keeping lizards and see how they can be avoided. When compared to the other commonly kept reptiles (snakes and turtles), lizards are notoriously hard to manage. They have strict Year of the Lizard News No. 5, September 2012, p. 4 Chamelions can that you intend to house. Keeping be difficult to care reptiles can be successful and a for properly, and usually don’t like wonderful, heartwarming experience to be handled but only if you have the time, effort, very much. Flap- and money to do it right. Your necked Chameleon veterinarian can help direct you. They (Chamaeleo dilepis), may inform you that some lizards photo by Maria Eifler. have greater hardiness than others and are easier to keep. Recently, at our busy veterinary practice a ten- year-old boy was describing to me the requirements with regard to humidity, most of the problems veterinarians excitement of watching his bearded access to natural or artificial sunshine see in captive reptiles stem from poor dragon at home in his terrarium. As and Vitamin D, temperature, and husbandry and neglect. Sometimes the child spoke, his eyes became alive their nutrition. Even well-seasoned we see geriatric problems due to old and his voice quickened.
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