A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California
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Lizard Behavior and Life History - Breeding Season Activities and
Male-Female Interactions
| Mating Season Behavior | |||
Spring is is the breeding season for most North American lizards. Males and females of some species develop orange coloring to show their breeding condition. It shows that females are full of eggs. Some male lizards grab on to the head of a female with their mouth until she is ready to let him mate with her. They can remain attached this way for many hours, almost oblivious to their surroundings. Besides keeping her from running off to mate with another male, this courting behavior probably shows her how strong and suitable a mate he is. |
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| Alligator Lizards - Elgaria | |||
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| These mating Sierra Alligator Lizards were spotted on a forest trail in Plumas County in the middle of the afternoon. © 2005 Todd Accornero |
Two mating Shasta Alligator Lizards. © Kelly Mathson |
One March morning, Carola Bundy photographed these two male San Diego Alligator Lizards biting onto the head of a female lizard on her porch in Los Angeles County. By the afternoon, the smaller lizard on the left was gone and the other two had moved to the driveway. | A pair of San Diego Alligator Lizards found in an Orange County yard in late March. © Marissa Russell |
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| A pair of courting San Diego Alligator Lizards. © Joy Lutz-Mizar | A pair of courting San Diego Alligator Lizards. © Aaron Fitzsimmons | Naomi Schiff © found this pair of California Alligator Lizards rolling down a hill and mating in late May. | A pair of mating San Diego Alligator Lizards © Liz Kubalek |
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| Two males attempting to court the same female San Francisco Alligator Lizard. © Emily Nelson |
These California Alligator Lizards were found in early May in Placer County. The photo on the right was taken the day after the photo on the left. They had been seen together for 2 days, travelling back and forth over a distance of about 30 feet. © Rod Anonymous |
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| Two adult male San Diego Alligator Lizards courting the same female on an Orange County sidewalk in mid April. | A pair of San Diego Alligator Lizards found inside a dry children's wading pool in a Los Angeles County suburban backyard in mid April. © Dana Zoulin |
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| Courting male and female San Diego Alligator Lizards in early April, San Diego County © Dan Boyd |
This copulating pair of California Alligator Lizards was found in Sacramento in mid May. |
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| An adult male Shasta Alligator Lizard courts a female by biting onto her neck in late May. © Laura Baker | Courting male and female California Alligator Lizards in early May. | ||
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| A pair of San Diego Alligator Lizards found mating in a garage in San Diego County in early April. © Jason Rosenberg |
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| Side-blotched Lizards - Uta | |||
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| Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards, San Diego County © Douglas Brown | A courting pair of adults in Orange County in May © Stacy Schenkel | ||
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| Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards © John Sullivan | Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards © Jeremiah Easter | Mating adult Western Side-blotched Lizards, Los Angeles County © Emily Chebul |
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| Skinks - Plestiodon | |||
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| These adult Skilton's Skinks (presumably a male and a female) were observed in courting behaviour at the edge of a trail in Santa Clara County. The male chased the female in and out of a crack in some bark, across the trail, and over various branches and logs. © Wim de Groot | |||
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| An adult male Northern Brown Skink (left) appears to be courting an adult female Northern Brown Skink (right) in the early May breeding season. © Rod |
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| Horned Lizards - Phrynosoma | |||
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| Jay Snow shot this series (left to right, top to bottom) of a mating pair of Desert Horned Lizards one day in late May in Death Valley National Park. © Jay Snow |
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| Mating Blainville's Horned Lizards. © Becky Trask | Adult Flat-tailed Horned Lizards breeding. © Michael Robinson | Adults, San Diego County © Andrew Borcher This pair is mating in an unusual postiton. |
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| This is a short video of a pair of mating Blainville's Horned Lizards. It's interesting that they are belly to belly. With all those horns and spines, it's probably safer that way. © Huck Triggs |
These two adult Blainville's Horned Lizards were found lying motionless. They were probably engaged in some kind of courtship or breeding behavior when they felt threatened and remained motionless to avoid detection. Horn lizards like to rely on their camouflage to stay out of trouble. © Christine Frei |
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| Other Lizard Families | |||
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| These mating adult Coastal Whiptails in the Baja California desert were so preoccupied that they allowed me to get close enough to grab them if I'd wanted. But that would have been rude. | A mating pair of Northern Desert Iguanas © Keith Condon |
As part of their courtship, which I presume precedes their mating, a male Mearns' Rock Lizard bites the tail of a female, then follows her closely, positioning himself on top of her. © Dan K. |
Courting adult male and female Mearns' Rock Lizards. © Dan K. |
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| On a sunny afternoon in May, the adult male Coast Range Fence Lizard on top chased the female on the bottom, keeping on top of her and not letting her get away. | These two short videos show some of the mating behavior of two adult Northern Desert Iguanas filmed in San Bernardino County in early April. © Alden Lovaas | ||
| Mating Season Colors | |||
In some lizard species, males have brighter colors than females that they show off to drive off rival males and to attract females. These colors often intensify during the mating season. There are many pictures of colorful male with their additional breeding colors Here so only a few will be shown here. Some species of breeding female lizards develop areas of orange color on the body and underside of the tail, but why they do so is not understood. One theory is that the colors serve to warn off males once a female has already mated. Another theory is that the colors attract breeding males. And another is that the colors are based on the female's changing hormones during the breeding season. |
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Males |
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| Adult male Nevada Side-blotched Lizard showing his bright orange breeding coloring. | This adult male Northern Desert Iguana, shows orange breeding coloring on his underside. | Breeding male Northern Brown Skink. | |
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| Adult male Skilton's Skink with breeding colors. © Alan Barron |
Adult male Western Side-blotched Lizard |
Adult male Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard © Patrick Briggs |
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Females |
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| Female Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard © Steve Bledsoe |
Gravid adult female Western Sagebrush Lizard |
Breeding adult female Texas Greater Earless Lizard |
Gravid adult female Sonoran Earless Lizard |
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| Female Cope's Leopard Lizard showing red breeding coloring. | Adult female Long-nosed Leopard Lizard showing her red breeding colors. |
Breeding colors on an adult female Great Basin Collared Lizard |
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| Male - Female Interactions (not mating or courting) | |||
These are some encounters between males and females that may also be part of courtship rituals. In some of the encounters, the males are chasing the females and shaking their bodies very quickly as if they are trying to persuade the females to mate. In another, a male sagebrush lizard appears to be agressive towards the female, who is full of eggs. |
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| This is a short video of two Coast Range Fence Lizards during the breeding season. The first lizard, a female, does a territorial push-up display. A male sees her, comes up the side of the rock, and begins to pursue her. She arches her back and hops away, running in a circle to reject his advances. She may have already mated, or maybe he's not her type. He finally stops and does a push-up display. Afterwards, they both ran off. |
This video shows some interactions between a male and a female Desert Spiny Lizard on the trunk of a large cottonwood tree. They both do push-up displays, and the female tries to put her head underneath the male a few times. It almost looks like the female is pursuing the male. | A male Western Side-blotched Lizard chases a female. She is not interested, and runs away. | This movie starts just after a male Western Sagebrush Lizard ran up the face of a large a rock outcrop and tackled a female, who was huge and full of eggs. He continues to harass her and she moves slowly with her body and her tail elevated defensively. She moves away and he sits on a ledge above her. |
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| These three short videos show some interactions between a male and two orange gravid female Western Sagebrush Lizards on an afternoon in late June in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County. In the first video, they are separated but the male jumps down to join a female and the third comes down from her rock, then as their shade disappears, they move into a sunny patch only a few feet away from the camera to bask. The other two videos show lots of push-ups, tail elevating, shuffling around, and even what looks like snuggling. | In this short video, a female Great Basin Fence Lizard runs across a wall in Riverside County and encounters a male who pursues her. She rejects him and he runs to an open spot on top of the wall and does a push-up display. |
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| In this short video, an adult male Common Agama, native to Africa and introduced to Florida, does his push-up territorial display and chases a female, who raises up high and lifts her tail to deter him. | |||
| Nest Digging and Eggs | |||
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| A female Great Basin Fence Lizard lays her eggs in a nest she dug on a San Diego County patio in mid June. © Connie McDowell | This hatchling lizard was found near the nest site in September. It may have hatched from eggs deposited there. More pictures of hatchling lizards found near this nest are shown above in the "Juveniles" section. © Connie McDowell | ||
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Gravid adult female Great Basin Fence Lizard in San Diego County in late May digging in loose dirt that had been recently dug up, most likely to use as a place to lay her eggs. |
The location where the female fence lizard was digging as it looked the following day, after she apparently concealed the location by packing the dirt over the eggs and re-arranging the vegetation. (Her activity was not observed, only the results.) |
This is the overall location of the San Diego backyard where the fence lizard dug her nest. © Bill Bachman |
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| In this short video, a female Western Side-blotched Lizard in the San Diego County desert repeatedly goes in and out of a small hole under an exposed root, digging out the sand with her feet and pushing it lower with her body. It's the middle of the May breeding season, so she is probably digging out a place to lay her eggs. | This Coronado Skink was found underneath a rock, lying on top of her eggs, in San Diego County. © Ryan Sikola |
This gravid female Western Side-blotched Lizard was found apparently digging a nest in a San Diego County backyard in mid July. © Connie McDowell |
This is a short YouTube video of a gravid female Western Side-blotched Lizard apparently digging a nest in a San Diego County backyard in mid July. © Connie McDowell |
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| This female California Alligator Lizard was observed sitting on a trail in Santa Clara County. She started slowly moving in a circle lifting her tail and turning her head under her tail in a circle around her eggs. Normally a female would dig a place or find a sheltered place to lay and brood her eggs, so this behavior is hard to understand. Perhaps she was injured and laid the eggs prematurely. There's no way to know for sure but it's doubtful she was able to successfully incubate the eggs out in the open. © Wim de Groot |
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