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Chris Newman
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| Posted: 08 April 2003 at 9:37am | IP Logged
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On Saturday last we made a trip to the Isle of Wight to see if we could find any of the Wall Lizards that were alleged to have been established at Ventnor. Within moment of arriving in the car park and adult male was seen sunning himself on a nearby wall.
In all about 30 adults were seen in the space of about half to three-quarter of an hour. It would appear that this colony is thriving.
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-LAF
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| Posted: 01 July 2003 at 2:20pm | IP Logged
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Hmm, I just came across reference to an article in Dec 2000 British Wildlife that suggest the wall lizards at Ventor may be a remnant native population. Is there any information that may support this, or any oppinions on the matter?
Many thanks, Lee.
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David Bird
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Lee
The paper is on the list of Introduced Species and is by Quayle,A. & Noble,M. The rumour of the relict populations has been going around for a few years seemingly spread by a conservationist that wanted to see some official protection put on the populations that occur on the south coast. I do not believe any of this and all colonies I have looked at or have heard of can be traced back to introductions. The problem is that now it is against the Wildlife and Countryside Act to release them so the persons who are still releasing them do not now publicise the fact unlike in the past when it was often put in some local journal or other. The Ventnor colony has been known for many years and there is a plaque in the car park saying who it was started by and that it was in the 19 th century. They certainly look like the normal Italian form to me, I know some tails were sent to Germany for comparison with the northernmost colonies found in the vinyards and some results appaarently showed that they were possibly related but do not think that any of this was published.I do not think any morphometric studies have ever been made on the whole animals by a competent taxonomist using specimens already in the collection at one of the major museums such as the British Museum (Natural History). We also have to rely on the fact that the German population has not been interfered with in any way with translocations from further south when the numbers were found to be dwindling about 30 years ago. One would expect similarities between southern England and Jersey or North France rather than Germany if these were relict populations. The Isle of Wight had a tradition of introducing reptiles and Amphibians in the 19th & 20th century along the south coast.
David
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-LAF
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Thanks David, I normally wouldn't have given too much attention such such claims but it is even stated on the HCT website that the origins of some colonies are unknown and that some *may* be native. It doesn't seems likely though, for a lizard that seems to do SO well at some of it's (introduction?) sites one would really expect that an historic population would remain widespread and abundant.
Similarly to Podarcis, I have heard there is a bit of uncertainty to the alien nature of some Emys orbicularis populations. To be honest I don't even know of any Emys orbicularis populations in the UK, let alone any that are actually breeding. But then the same assumptions of introduced colonies were made with R. lessonae and we all know what happened there (probably).
As far as testing for legitimacy of UK Podarcis I would have thought that looking for some similarities among UK populations would be a logical first step. Whether morphometrics would be a fully valid method in Podarcis I'm not totally sure... from what I've seen in Anolis, much relative morpholgy can be more closely related to habitat than liniange. However, I'm not sure if Podarcis follow that pattern. Scalation should certainly be robust though and using morphometrics is undoubtedly cheaper and easier than mtDNA bootstrapping, not to mention a lot more accessible!
Thanks again for all the info. Hugely helpful.
Cheers, Lee.
Edited by -LAF on 02 July 2003 at 4:17am
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David Bird
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| Posted: 04 October 2003 at 12:44am | IP Logged
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Here are a few pics of the Ventnor Wall Lizards Podarcis muralis taken about 5 years ago.
2 above shots are males and bottom shot female.
As there was a mention of Podarcis sicula the Ruin Lizard in another thread where there was a possibility that a colony was of this species I have included this pic taken in the Istrian peninsula Croatia to show how different they are from the Wall Lizard
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bearde
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hi i was wondering does any 1 no wall lizard care of Podarcis muralis pls
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Vicar
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Anybody compared the Ventnor colony to the Farnham colony ?
Are they even the same species ?
I asked the English Heritage chap and some of the Castle Gardeners about the Farnham Castle colony, nobody had ever seen a Lizard !
I really should have wandered about the castle more, earlier in the year...especially as its only 10 minutes walk from my house ! (cough), but I was tramping heaths at Frensham and Hankley :P
I've read somewhere that Podarcis are more active than our natives over the Winter months ? Is this so ?
If so I'll wander down on some warmer days over the next month or 2.
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Vicar
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Finally got an excuse to wander down to Ventnor this weekend, was pretty late in the day when we got there, but managed a few snaps.
Hopefully pics are good enough for somebody with more expertise than I to identify the race ?
Edited by Vicar on 19 April 2005 at 10:00am
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Vicar
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Managed another trip to Ventnor this over the last couple of days, and might be there again this May. Attached are some pics. Can the sub-species be identified?, or what measures would be required to make a positive ID ?
Oh, and they bite ! 
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arvensis
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I may go up and look at the Farnham colony.. If I can find out exactly where they are.
Mark
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Topic: Wall Lizards at Ventnor
