As bird watching re-emerges as one of America’s most popular outdoor recreational activities, the scaly cousins of our avian friends get much less attention than they deserve, at least according to my herpetologically-biased associates. Modern reptiles and birds both evolved from one Subclass of reptilian ancestors not completely eradicated during the mass extinctions triggered by the cataclysmic asteroid impact near today’s Yucatan peninsula at the close of the Cretaceous era 66 million years ago.
In and around the Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve and across southern California, the Western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) is one of the most abundant of these distant bird cousins. Rarely longer than six inches from nose to tail, the “Bluebelly’s” grayish-black spiny dorsal skin contrasts with bright iridescent blue patches on its soft underbelly. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, my childhood friends and I would catch Bluebellies with crude nooses fashioned from a long stick and piece of string. We would keep the lizards as pets in terrariums, feeding them mealworms from the local pet store until someone’s mother would complain of the odor and set all the captives free.
You’ll often see Bluebellies on rocks or fence posts in upland areas of the Ballona Wetlands, staying warm in the sunshine to keep their metabolism high (being cold-blooded animals) and preying mostly on insects. When they see you approach, males defend their territory with head-bobbing and a “push-up” display that exposes their blue throat and belly colors. Get too close and they will use superior speed to dash for cover out of harm’s way.
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A protein in the blood of Western fence lizards kills the Lyme disease bacterium carried in deer ticks, which attach to the lizard and ingest its blood. This may explain why Lyme disease is rare in the western states where Sceloporus roams, unlike eastern states where the disease is epidemic. Hooray for our Bluebellies!
Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!
