Who we are:

  The Western Fence Lizard's scientific name is sceloporus occidentails.   Its Genus name is from the Greek words "skelos: meaning legs and "porus" referring to the femoral pores on their hind legs.  The Western Fence Lizard belongs to the Family Phrynosomatidae which includes the following features: Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horns.

Where we live:

  Western Fence Lizards mostly live in California  but they can be  found in Oregon, Nevada, around the Colombia river between Washington and Oregon, and in the western part of Utah.  That is, the Western Fence Lizard can be found in a wide variety of open, sunny habitats, including woodlands, grasslands, scrub, chapparal, forests, edges of waterways, suburban dwellings, where there are suitable basking and perching sites, including fences, walls, piles of wood and rocks, dead trees, wood rat nests, road berms, and open trail edges.

How to identify us:

  Western Fence Lizards are medium-sized lizards that can be up to 8.4 inches long.  Their back limbs are covered in spiny gray, tan or brown scales with darker waves or blotches.  Their under side is white or yellow, although adult males have large bright blue patches surrounded by black on their belly and throat. 

Our biological contribution:

  A protein in the western fence lizards blood can kill the bacterium that causes Lyme disease which is the most common tick carried disease in the northern hemisphere.  When disease carrying ticks feed on the lizards blood the disease causing bacteria are killed on the ticks no longer carry the disease!  Between April and July females lay a single clutch up to 3 to 1 7 eggs which hatch 2 months afterwards.