Forest Lizard

Forest lizard - Lacerta praticola

comments (5)

Jivko Nakev

Lion

I have shot this lizard near the town of Tran, Western Bulgaria, Erma river gorge. I think it is Lazerta praticola (Darevskia praticola). But I am not quite sure. Posted 11 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  I believe your proposed identification is likely accurate based on reference photos. Posted 11 years ago

Jivko Nakev

Lion

Thanks. I don't know why the geotag shows it is captured in Serbia, although I put very accurately the red sign exactly on the spot I took the photo! Posted 11 years ago
1. WildFlower
  
  Lion
  
  I think you should check the ID again.
  The valid name for the suggested species is Darevskia praticola (EVERSMANN, 1834) and Lacerta praticola is one of the synonyms. Strangely, the English common name is meadow lizard, while the Bulgarian is forest lizard. According to the references I have found, this species should have a dark band on the back, which I cannot see here. Maybe if you have a top view photo of the same lizard you could check it again and compare it to the following references:
  http://greenbalkans.org/article_files/121103172852.pdf - start from page 79
  http://www.herpetologyphoto2.hit.bg/Ph_D_praticola.htm
  http://www.euroherp.com/species/Darevskia_praticola/
  http://eol.org/pages/792857/overview
  http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/157245/0
  http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Darevskia&species=praticola
  
  I don't know why, but the geotagging system sometimes reads the location wrong. It also happened for one of my tags. The tag was on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube river, but an address in Romania was refered to instead. Posted 11 years ago, modified 11 years ago

Jivko Nakev

Lion

Yes, I've checked all these references already. Also
http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%87%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B8_%D0%B2_%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F
In fact the darker stripe is missing, but I've seen some other photos of lizards identified as Praticola without or with hardly visible darker bands. Still think this is the right identification, although not 100% sure. Posted 11 years ago

The Meadow Lizard

This species occurs in very fragmented populations, ranging from eastern and southern Serbia, western and southern Romania, much of Bulgaria (except the southwest), and northeastern Greece (a few records from the margin of its range) to European Turkey (Thrace only). It also occurs as a second disjunct population ranging from northwestern Iran, through Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia into southern Russia. It is found up to 2000m asl in Armenia and Georgia.

Info 3 0

Similar species: Snakes And Lizards

Species identified by Ferdy Christant