Jeweled Lacerta

Found in France and Morocco, lacertas are the largest European lizard. They have small, sharp scales that are brown on their backs and get green as they go up, with yellow scales on the underbelly. The scales are very shiny, hence its name, the "jeweled" lacerta. Male lizards have blue spots with black outlines in addition to the other colors. These are warnings not only to humans but to other lizards. The males will fight in the dust with other lizards until one of them dies or retreats.

These lizards are quite carnivorous, eating insects, spiders, snails, small snakes, rodents, birds, and even smaller of their own kind. They will also eat rotting fruit. Jeweled lacertas are very good hunters- they wait for their prey to approach them, and then pounce on their food and eat it whole, as they have very strong jaws. Even though this lizard is VERY big (some grow more than 52 inches long), it is quite timid and VERY sneaky. It will enter gardens at night to eat its food, and will make a mess of the garden in this process. If it has any sense of danger, it hides.

These creatures HAVE been caught and bred successfully for resale and for pets. While in the wild they are very timid and scamper off at the first sight of a human, once they are used to the domesticated life they associate their owner with food and lighten up. In captivity they will eat most bugs and mushed apple and banana.