J. 🥚🧬🦎
Releasing a baby lizard on Great Cumbrae today 🦎 #lizards #herps #scottishherps #zootocavivipara #commonlizard #isleofcumbrae #greatcumbrae #LizardsOfMastodon
Jul 25, 2023 at 12:47pmWeb
Show threadBob DownieSep 27, 2023

@j Cool! Seeing as how you are lizard literate, can I ask you a question? 50 years ago I remember lizards being quite common, both on the dunes in Aberdeenshire and in the hills (mainly Cairngorms). I haven't seen one in years. Are they on the decline or is it my observation?

Thanks

Show threadJ. 🥚🧬🦎Sep 27, 2023
@geomannie Hi! I'm not personally familiar with lizards in Aberdeenshire, but a friend who was working in the Cairngorms in 2020 said he saw them there quite regularly. Data on common lizard populations in Scotland is unfortunately somewhat scare, although the Scottish Adder Survey (ongoing) is looking at them alongside other Scottish herps, so watch this space!
Show threadJ. 🥚🧬🦎Sep 27, 2023
@geomannie In general, common lizards are widespread and abundant across most of their range, particularly in places like the UK where they have no real competitors. However, they are still potentially at risk from climate change - they are a cold-adapted species which struggles with rising temperatures which reduce their reproductive output (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27247438/) and cause genetic abnormalities (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35939680/).
Warmer temperatures attenuate the classic offspring number and reproductive investment trade-off in the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara - PubMed

Life-history traits involved in trade-offs are known to vary with environmental conditions. Here, we evaluate the response of the trade-off between 'offspring number' versus 'energy invested per offspring' to ambient temperature in 11 natural populations of the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara We pro …

PubMed
Show threadJ. 🥚🧬🦎Sep 27, 2023
@geomannie However, I do think it's unlikely that current temperatures in Aberdeenshire would be a serious factor for them ... yet. The most effected populations are at the southern edge of their European range, i.e. France, Austria, Slovenia, Ukraine, Russia etc. . Hopefully you've just been unlucky when looking out for them in recent years - their level of activity is very variable with weather, time of year, and other factors so even if they re there they often go unnoticed!
Show threadBob DownieSep 27, 2023
@j Thanks. Good to know that they are still frequent in the Cairngorms