On 11/04/17 06:37, Alan C wrote:
It is surprising that lizards can survive your winter conditions at all yet
obviously some do.
Yeah, maybe that's the surprising bit. Apparently, you can find them in much more northerly parts of the country...
  Many reptiles are able to survive very cold conditions
by hibernating. Even here, where it doesn't get very cold, the lizards &
snakes tend to be quite sluggish on cooler mornings.
Quite. I few years ago I actually came across a slow-worm on the pavement near where I live. This was an a cool evening rather than morning, and the English name of the creature seemed quite appropriate, if you know what I mean.

I would say those are
in the process of emerging from hibernation. Perhaps you should have
observed them over an extended period?
Anyhow, I actually asked the natural history museum, and according to them, this is in fact not a lizard after all, but rather a newt in its "terrestrial phase", also known as an "eft". I thought these would have flatter and thicker tails, but I guess that's something that they develop later... Apparently, they will wander from their place of hibernation to dams around this time, and run a great risk of drying out if it's too sunny. There is also a change that they have been forced out into the sun because their place has been disturbed.

- Toralf

Alan C

-----Original Message----- From: Bob W-PDML
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2017 1:09 AM
To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
Subject: Re: PESO - Lizard(s), passed on?

Perhaps they were pottering along in the warm sunshine but were caught out by a sudden cold snap and are simply frozen waiting to be warmed up again. That would be appropriate for Easter. Only a herpetologist or a theologian would know.

B

On 10 Apr 2017, at 23:01, Toralf Lund <tor...@toralf.net> wrote:

Hi,

There seems to have been a number of "what is this" PESOs lately, and I think I'll post one, too, as I came across something strange and perhaps a bit sad today. Here I go:

http://se.toralf.net/post/159427976638/firfisle

Not the best of pictures, but the point is to ask if anyone have an explanation of what I saw. Well, I think I know what this is; it's what's known as "firfisle" around here, i.e. a small lizard. The thing is (the sad part), I don't think he was sitting so still because he was pining for the fjords, but rather had passed on, ceased to be, expired and gone to meet his maker, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible, and so on. Perhaps nothing extraordinary, either, but I actually saw 15-20 of these in a similar state, all on a pawed path. This made me wonder what was going on. I mean, perhaps these poor creatures just didn't make it through the winter, but I think it's a bit strange to find several of them "in the open" like this.

Any theories?

- Toralf



--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.



--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow 
the directions.

Reply via email to