{"id":280995,"date":"2026-04-22T22:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280995\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:47:09","slug":"one-of-los-angeles-best-adapted-urban-creatures-lizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280995\/","title":{"rendered":"One of Los Angeles\u2019 best-adapted urban creatures? Lizards."},"content":{"rendered":"

March\u2019s record heat made it the most abnormally warm month<\/a> in recorded U.S. history, bringing plants into bloom early and coaxing animals out of their winter hiding places ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

Among the creatures making an early debut: The southern alligator lizard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the lizards crawled into a UCLA science building during Southern California\u2019s March heat wave, and UCLA reptile expert Brad Shaffer used the opportunity to tell Angelenos about the value of urban wildlife while gently shooing them back outdoors where they belong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re great animals: They\u2019re harmless, they\u2019re useful, they\u2019re a native species and they can\u2019t hurt you,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cThey help by eating all kinds of insects, including pest insects. If they come inside, just get a broom and gently coax them toward the door.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rogue reptile caught the eye<\/a> of local reporters,<\/a>\u00a0and after a day of showing the lizard<\/a> to news cameras \u2014 and getting bitten repeatedly (\u201cThe bites can\u2019t break the skin, they just pinch\u201d) \u2014 Shaffer released the critter into UCLA\u2019s botanical garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthern alligator lizards are a little bit of a mystery, because they\u2019re our most-urban-adapted species,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cWestern fence lizards are much more abundant in Southern California, but they\u2019re not thriving as well in cities. The native alligator lizards\u2019 success is a sign that we\u2019re doing something right environmentally to support them \u2014 and wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful if we could figure out what that is?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Southern alligator lizards can be up to a foot long, with most of their length coming from their tails, which they can use to help them climb\u2014a sort of fifth limb. They do well in parks and backyards, and are \u201ca great addition\u201d to the city\u2019s wildlife, Shaffer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful lizard,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s got those bars across the sides, that stripe down the back \u2014 they\u2019re really lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less welcome are the rattlesnakes that also emerged early this season. While it\u2019s important to stay on guard in areas that could have rattlers, the local rattlesnakes also have an important part to play ecologically, Shaffer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRattlesnakes are generally only aggressive toward humans when provoked, and they prey on gophers, rats, mice and other often unwanted species,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cIf possible, work with experienced individuals to relocate, rather than killing, snakes that are living a little too close for comfort.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March\u2019s record heat made it the most abnormally warm month in recorded U.S. history, bringing plants into bloom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20,48,52,51,47,50,49,6080],"class_list":{"0":"post-280995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news","15":"tag-research"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}