Southern Alligator Lizard
Elgaria multicarinata
July 11, 2012
Hetch Hetchy
A common lizard of broad leaf shady groves and creek canyon slopes is the Southern Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata). While common, these lizards do not readily make themselves visible. They are happier to be under logs and rocks, swimming through the leaf litter on the forest floor or high in the tree tops searching for grasshoppers, crickets, termites, and soft, juicy spiders. So, it was much to my delight to observe one climbing fluidly through the thicket of creek-side brush amidst the moss and ferns on the trail to Wapama Falls.