Eastern Glass Lizard

Eastern Glass Lizards are the longest-known lizards in North America, spread along the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. Like all lizards of the family Anguidae, they are limbless and are often mistaken for snakes due to their body shape and coloration. However, unlike their reptilian lookalike, they have moveable eyelids, external ear openings, and inflexible jaws.

These reptiles earn their name from the tendency to shed their tails when attacked by predators, often shattering them into pieces like glass.

Description

Size: Length: Total – 46 to 108 cm (18 to 43 inches); Snout-Vent: 30 cm (11 inches)

Weight: 300 to 600 g (0.6 to 1.3 lbs)

Body and Coloration:

An Eastern Glass Lizard has a slender, streamlined body, which is dark green dorsally with multiple black lines running laterally from the head to the tail. The ventral surface is yellow, and the neck has a series of highly irregular, white markings. About a hundred smooth scales are embedded along the lateral groove, with white markings on their posterior corners. They also have a fragile tail that can break off and regenerate when necessary.

They are best distinguished from other glass lizards by the absence of a dark dorsal (dorsomedial) stripe below the lateral groove and the vertical white bars behind the head. Younger individuals are usually tan-colored with dark longitudinal stripes on both sides of their backs, while older ones are speckled and less boldly patterned. The females are greener than the males, whereas the latter often have wider color stripes and golden brown speckles all over their bodies.

Distribution

Native to North America, these lizards are primarily spread along the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. In the United States, they are found in Florida, coastal North and South Carolina, most of Georgia, and south-eastern Virginia. Their range extends westward to Louisiana, while some individuals are found in Oklahoma and Mississippi. They have also been spotted far south in the Cayman Islands, though how they arrived at such a remote location remains a mystery. 

Habitat

These lizards inhabit dry and wet habitats, primarily in pine flatwoods, wet meadows, and grasslands adjacent to wetlands. They are resistant to salty conditions and thus also inhabit tidal areas like coastal dunes. Though they prefer foraging in open habitats during the day, they often hide under debris like cardboard and boxes.

Diet

They are carnivores that feed on insects like crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, termites, spiders, and small rodents like mice. These lizards also feed on the eggs of other reptiles and ground-nesting birds.

Behavior

• Eastern Glass Lizards remain solitary for most of their life and rely on visual and olfactory cues to perceive their immediate environment, detect prey, and avoid predators. They also use their tongues to sense if the prey is alive or dead.
• They have a small home range, similar to their close relative, the slender glass lizards, and prefer staying close to the areas where they hatch. However, they are active foragers, browsing extensively within their range.
• Being crepuscular, they hunt for food at dawn, dusk, and after rain. They are often seen basking in the sun on rocks and paved roads during the mid-morning or early evening.
• When under threat, they constantly thrash about and attempt to bite the captor. They also exhibit the phenomenon of ‘autotomy’, in which they can voluntarily shed their tails, shattering them into several pieces as they fall off. The fallen pieces continue to wriggle and distract the predator, providing the lizard enough time to escape.

Lifespan

Their lifespan in captivity typically ranges from 4 to 15 years. Even though little information is available about their lifespan in the wild, it is shorter than in captivity.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

They reach sexual maturity at about two years and generally mate only once a year, during spring. In the fall, the females, which are oviparous, lay eggs in clutches of 5 to 17 eggs while nesting under logs, clumps of grasses, or in depressions. They remain in the nest, coiling around the eggs and incubating them until they hatch in about two months, between August and September. The tan-colored hatchlings are about 15 to 20 cm long and are totally independent at birth, thus requiring little parental care.

Predator

The natural predators of these lizards include raccoons, skunks, foxes, hawks, snakes, and cats. However, their most formidable predators are humans.

Adaptations

• They have a forked tongue and a well-developed accessory olfactory organ (Jacobson’s organ) that helps them track their prey and detect the source of harmful chemicals in their surroundings.

Conservation Status

The Eastern Glass Lizard is classified as ‘Least Concern’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red Data List. The only threat they face is the development of land by humans, leading to habitat fragmentation and, eventually, a decrease in their population. The federal and state governments should try to protect and maintain their habitats, especially near the marshes. They must thoroughly examine any strategies for developing waterfowl impounds and altering grassland habitats that may adversely affect their population.