Reptile/amphibian ID assistance?



P

Peewiglet

Guest
I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
lizard or a newt - scurrying away through the undergrowth. What was
striking about it was that it moved both right legs together, and then
both left legs, so it ran with a very pronounced wiggle.

I've rarely had the good luck to see a lizard, and, although I spent a
lot of time in sand dune pools searching for newts as a child, I can
no longer remember how they move.

Can anyone shed any light on what this was likely to have been? It was
small, and it's such a long time since I saw it that I can no longer
remember how it looked, other than its very distinctive gait.

Thanks for any enlightenment :)


Best wishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
/ \ / \
 
"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote

> I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
> summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
> corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
> lizard or a newt


<snip>

> Can anyone shed any light on what this was likely to have been?


If it was boggy, most likely a newt I'd have thought. We used to catch them
when I was a kid, they do spend time on land as well as in pools of water.
I wouldn't have thought lizards would like to hang about on boggy ground
though. We used to find them sunning themselves around rocks in the summer.
My mum sometimes gets lizards on the woodpile in her garden, there were two
baby ones this year which would let you get your nose to within about a foot
of them for a close look.
 
Probably a common lizard (Lacerta Vivipara)!

You obviously haven't read every word of my Pennine Way Site at
http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/ !!!!!!

If you go to Day one - http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/dayone.htm

You can read my account of spotting one on the Pennine Way and there is a
link (common lizard) to some
'photos and info.

I also saw several on the Coast to Coast walk this year.

Have also spotted them (albeit rarely) in the south here (Berkshire) and in
Cornwall.


David Gibbins







"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
> summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
> corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
> lizard or a newt - scurrying away through the undergrowth. What was
> striking about it was that it moved both right legs together, and then
> both left legs, so it ran with a very pronounced wiggle.
>
> I've rarely had the good luck to see a lizard, and, although I spent a
> lot of time in sand dune pools searching for newts as a child, I can
> no longer remember how they move.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on what this was likely to have been? It was
> small, and it's such a long time since I saw it that I can no longer
> remember how it looked, other than its very distinctive gait.
>
> Thanks for any enlightenment :)
>
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> ,,
> (**)PeeWiglet~~
> / \ / \
 
P.S.

The link on my site includes the following info:-

Habitat
They are found in a range of habitats including woodland, marshes,
heathland, moors, sand dunes, hedgerows, bogs and rubbish dumps.


David


"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
> summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
> corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
> lizard or a newt - scurrying away through the undergrowth. What was
> striking about it was that it moved both right legs together, and then
> both left legs, so it ran with a very pronounced wiggle.
>
> I've rarely had the good luck to see a lizard, and, although I spent a
> lot of time in sand dune pools searching for newts as a child, I can
> no longer remember how they move.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on what this was likely to have been? It was
> small, and it's such a long time since I saw it that I can no longer
> remember how it looked, other than its very distinctive gait.
>
> Thanks for any enlightenment :)
>
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> ,,
> (**)PeeWiglet~~
> / \ / \
 
This will have been a Bog Lizard - they walk like ordinary lizards most
of the time but are shy about urinating in public so they save it up
until they're bursting. Then they balance on the two right legs and let
it flow out whilst toppling slowly sideways onto their two left legs -
and then back to the right again and so on. This makes them move, as
you said, with a very pronounced wiggle, hence their more common name,
the Pee-wiggle-it.

:)
 
Not sure that my 1st message came through so I'll post again.

==

Probably a common lizard (Lacerta Vivipara)!

You obviously haven't read every word of my Pennine Way Site at
http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/ !!!!!!

If you go to Day one - http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/dayone.htm

You can read my account of spotting one on the Pennine Way and there is a
link (common lizard) to some
'photos and info.

I also saw several on the Coast to Coast walk this year.

Have also spotted them (albeit rarely) in the south here (Berkshire) and in
Cornwall.


David Gibbins
=========


"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
> summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
> corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
> lizard or a newt - scurrying away through the undergrowth. What was
> striking about it was that it moved both right legs together, and then
> both left legs, so it ran with a very pronounced wiggle.
>
> I've rarely had the good luck to see a lizard, and, although I spent a
> lot of time in sand dune pools searching for newts as a child, I can
> no longer remember how they move.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on what this was likely to have been? It was
> small, and it's such a long time since I saw it that I can no longer
> remember how it looked, other than its very distinctive gait.
>
> Thanks for any enlightenment :)
>
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> ,,
> (**)PeeWiglet~~
> / \ / \
 
On 11 Dec 2004 04:49:53 -0800, BeauGeste wrote:

>This will have been a Bog Lizard .... This makes them move, as
>you said, with a very pronounced wiggle, hence their more common name,
>the Pee-wiggle-it.


Oh the hilarity! My sides hurt.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"
 
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 11:46:38 +0000 (UTC), "bt"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Probably a common lizard (Lacerta Vivipara)!
>
>You obviously haven't read every word of my Pennine Way Site at
>http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/ !!!!!!


:) I have, in fact - really!
>
>If you go to Day one - http://www.davidgibbins.btinternet.co.uk/dayone.htm
>
>You can read my account of spotting one on the Pennine Way and there is a
>link (common lizard) to some
>'photos and info.


I've just read it again, but what struck me about the creature I was
describing was its unusual gait. Both right legs moved forward, and
then both left legs, etc. On the odd occasions when I've seen lizards
before (including, by coincidence, one on the first day of the PW)
I've not noticed them moving like that.

I've just read the links you included, and I can't find anything about
gait. Do you happen to know how they move?

>I also saw several on the Coast to Coast walk this year.


I occasionally see them here in the woods/sandhills on a sunny day,
but only very briefly before they disappear into the undergrowth.


Best wishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
/ \ / \
 
"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote

> I've been meaning to ask this for ages. During the Pennine Way in the
> summer I was crossing boggy ground one afternoon when out of the
> corner of my eye I noticed a little creature - presumably either a
> lizard or a newt


Frogs are very common things to find hopping about Scottish hillsides a long
way from water by the way.
 
Well they would do, wouldn't they? Basically the same animal!

lol

Lizards tend to move quicker on land than newts. Newts move - well rather
like newts out of water!


"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Ahaa... in fact, this BBC site suggests that lizards, newts and
> salamanders all move that way.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/print/walking.shtml
>
> What I saw in the summer was particularly pronounced, then. I'll have
> to look further...
>
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> ,,
> (**)PeeWiglet~~
> / \ / \
 
"David" <[email protected]> wrote

> Lizards tend to move quicker on land than newts. Newts move - well rather
> like newts out of water!


Newts don't walk at all well. They tend to kind of stagger a few steps
before falling over... hence the phrase "****** as a newt".
 
We should maybe set up a sub-group uk.rec.lizards.walking!

This may help in your identification

http://www.darkwave.org.uk/~caleb/ukkey.html

=======


"Peewiglet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Ahaa... in fact, this BBC site suggests that lizards, newts and
> salamanders all move that way.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/print/walking.shtml
>
> What I saw in the summer was particularly pronounced, then. I'll have
> to look further...
>
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> ,,
> (**)PeeWiglet~~
> / \ / \
 
* The air of uk.rec.walking was filled with the delicate perfume
* of violets, as AndyP <[email protected]> descended on
* a shaft of golden sunlight, and announced:

> Frogs are very common things to find hopping about Scottish hillsides a long
> way from water by the way.


I've found frogs well over 3000 feet in Scotland

Jim Ford
 
[email protected] said...
> * The air of uk.rec.walking was filled with the delicate perfume
> * of violets, as AndyP <[email protected]> descended on
> * a shaft of golden sunlight, and announced:
>
> > Frogs are very common things to find hopping about Scottish hillsides a long
> > way from water by the way.

>
> I've found frogs well over 3000 feet in Scotland
>

Those are frogs, Jim, but not as we know them...

--
I try to be a good example to my children, but they just see
me as a dire warning.
 
On 11 Dec 2004 17:42:45 GMT, Jim Ford <[email protected]>
wrote:

>* The air of uk.rec.walking was filled with the delicate perfume
>* of violets, as AndyP <[email protected]> descended on
>* a shaft of golden sunlight, and announced:
>
>> Frogs are very common things to find hopping about Scottish hillsides a long
>> way from water by the way.

>
>I've found frogs well over 3000 feet in Scotland
>
>Jim Ford


I've found a frog on a horse.

--

R
o
o
n
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Jim Ford <[email protected]> writes
>
>I've found frogs well over 3000 feet in Scotland
>
>Jim Ford

Good grief! I'm uneasy with 6" toads.
--
Gordon Harris
 
I noticed that Message-ID: <[email protected]>
from Chris Street contained the following:

>
>> Well they would do, wouldn't they? Basically the same animal!
>>

>
>Err, newts are amphibians and lizards are reptiles. Fairly different I'd
>have said!


An amphibian is not a reptile? Always fort dey was.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/
 
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 16:24:39 -0000, "AndyP"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>"David" <[email protected]> wrote
>
>> Lizards tend to move quicker on land than newts. Newts move - well rather
>> like newts out of water!

>
>Newts don't walk at all well. They tend to kind of stagger a few steps
>before falling over... hence the phrase "****** as a newt".
>

:) Are you making that up, or is it true? (i.e. the '****** as a
newt' thingy?) Enquiring minds....


Best wishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
/ \ / \
 
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 20:51:16 +0000, Geoff Berrow <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I noticed that Message-ID: <[email protected]>
>from Chris Street contained the following:
>
>>
>>> Well they would do, wouldn't they? Basically the same animal!
>>>

>>
>>Err, newts are amphibians and lizards are reptiles. Fairly different I'd
>>have said!

>
>An amphibian is not a reptile? Always fort dey was.


That's because they look just the same....

--

R
o
o
n
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y