Northern Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea
Species of Concern
Global Rank:
G5
State Rank:
S3
Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:
FWP Conservation Tier:
2
External Links
General Description
The body of the Northern Alligator Lizard is elongate and the legs are short. The back is brown, tan, or gray to olive, yellow, or greenish. The dark sides of the body are often checkered with small darker patches. The belly scale rows are edged with a darker area giving the white to pale gray belly a banded appearance. There is a distinctive fold of skin running along each side of the body extending between the legs, revealing small granular scales when spread apart. Males have larger and broader triangular-shaped heads; juveniles have a broad reddish-tan stripe running the length of the back. Adults of E. c. principis are 7 to 10 centimeters snout-vent length (SVL) and up to 20 centimeters in total length; newly born young are about 2.5 to 3.0 centimeters snout-vent length.
General Distribution
Summary of Observations Submitted for Montana
Number of Observations: 96
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Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density
Recency
(Records associated with a range of dates are excluded from time charts)
Migration
No information is currently available.
Habitat
There is little specific information on habitat associations in Montana. Several observations have been made on south-facing slopes in fine to course talus, sometimes in the open, but often with some canopy cover of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, a variety of shrubby species (serviceberry, ninebark, mock orange), and a litter layer of dried leaves and conifer needles (Werner and Reichel 1994, Hendricks and Reichel 1996, Werner et al. 1998, Boundy 2001, P. Hendricks personal observation).
From other locations within the species' range, the Northern Alligator Lizard occurs in areas more cool and humid than most lizards tolerate, but it also appears to require some sunny clearings. It is found in coniferous forest, often in grassy grown-over areas at the margins of woodlands, in clearcuts, sometimes near streams or in sagebrush habitats, along coasts sometimes far from trees or major cover, often associated with rock outcrops and talus in some regions, and frequenting areas around abandoned buildings (Lais 1976, Nussbaum et al. 1983, St. John 2002, Stebbins 2003).
Ecological Systems Associated with this Species
- Details on Creation and Suggested Uses and Limitations
How Associations Were Made
We associated the use and habitat quality (high, medium, or low) of each of the 82 ecological systems mapped in Montana for
vertebrate animal species that regularly breed, overwinter, or migrate through the state by:
- Using personal observations and reviewing literature that summarize the breeding, overwintering, or migratory habitat requirements of each species (Dobkin 1992, Hart et al. 1998, Hutto and Young 1999, Maxell 2000, Foresman 2001, Adams 2003, and Werner et al. 2004);
- Evaluating structural characteristics and distribution of each ecological system relative to the species’ range and habitat requirements;
- Examining the observation records for each species in the state-wide point database associated with each ecological system;
- Calculating the percentage of observations associated with each ecological system relative to the percent of Montana covered by each ecological system to get a measure of “observations versus availability of habitat”.
Species that breed in Montana were only evaluated for breeding habitat use, species that only overwinter in Montana were only evaluated for overwintering habitat use, and species that only migrate through Montana were only evaluated for migratory habitat use.
In general, species were associated as using an ecological system if structural characteristics of used habitat documented in the literature were present in the ecological system or large numbers of point observations were associated with the ecological system.
However, species were not associated with an ecological system if there was no support in the literature for use of structural characteristics in an ecological system,
even if point observations were associated with that system.
High, medium, and low habitat quality was assigned based on the degree to which the structural characteristics of an ecological system matched the preferred structural habitat characteristics for each species in the literature.
The percentage of observations associated with each ecological system relative to the percent of Montana covered by each ecological system was also used to guide assignments of habitat quality.
If you have any questions or comments on species associations with ecological systems, please contact Bryce Maxell at
bmaxell@mt.gov or (406) 444-3655.
Suggested Uses and Limitations
Species associations with ecological systems should be used to generate potential lists of species that may occupy broader landscapes for the purposes of landscape-level planning.
These potential lists of species should not be used in place of documented occurrences of species (this information can be requested at:
http://mtnhp.org/requests/default.asp) or systematic surveys for species and evaluations of habitat at a local site level by trained biologists.
Users of this information should be aware that the land cover data used to generate species associations is based on imagery from the late 1990s and early 2000s and was only intended to be used at broader landscape scales.
Land cover mapping accuracy is particularly problematic when the systems occur as small patches or where the land cover types have been altered over the past decade.
Thus, particular caution should be used when using the associations in assessments of smaller areas (e.g., evaluations of public land survey sections).
Finally, although a species may be associated with a particular ecological system within its known geographic range, portions of that ecological system may occur outside of the species’ known geographic range.
Literature Cited
- Adams, R.A. 2003. Bats of the Rocky Mountain West; natural history, ecology, and conservation. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. 289 p.
- Dobkin, D. S. 1992. Neotropical migrant land birds in the Northern Rockies and Great Plains. USDA Forest Service, Northern Region. Publication No. R1-93-34. Missoula, MT.
- Foresman, K.R. 2001. The wild mammals of Montana. Special Publication No. 12. Lawrence, KS: The American Society of Mammalogists. 278 p.
- Hart, M.M., W.A. Williams, P.C. Thornton, K.P. McLaughlin, C.M. Tobalske, B.A. Maxell, D.P. Hendricks, C.R. Peterson, and R.L. Redmond. 1998. Montana atlas of terrestrial vertebrates. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Montana, Missoula, MT. 1302 p.
- Hutto, R.L. and J.S. Young. 1999. Habitat relationships of landbirds in the Northern Region, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station RMRS-GTR-32. 72 p.
- Maxell, B.A. 2000. Management of Montana’s amphibians: a review of factors that may present a risk to population viability and accounts on the identification, distribution, taxonomy, habitat use, natural history, and the status and conservation of individual species. Report to U.S. Forest Service Region 1. Missoula, MT: Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana. 161 p.
- Werner, J.K., B.A. Maxell, P. Hendricks, and D. Flath. 2004. Amphibians and reptiles of Montana. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company. 262 p.
- Commonly Associated with these Ecological Systems
Forest and Woodland Systems
Grassland Systems
Open Water / Wetland and Riparian Systems
Shrubland, Steppe and Savanna Systems
Sparse and Barren Systems
- Occasionally Associated with these Ecological Systems
Forest and Woodland Systems
Food Habits
An invertivore, Northern Alligator Lizards feed on insects, ticks, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, slugs and snails (Nussbaum et al. 1983, St. John 2002, Stebbins 2003). There is no information on the food habits of this species in Montana.
Ecology
Limited information is available for Montana. The Northern Alligator Lizard is a secretive species, most often found under logs and rocks, although it is frequently detected rustling through litter of dried leaves and needles or sunning in an exposed location. The life history has not been thoroughly studied. Northern Alligator Lizards are active during the day, after emerging from winter hibernation, from April to September (Nussbaum et al. 1983, St. John 2002, Stebbins 2003). Animals have been found surface active in Montana from early April through September (Rodgers and Jellison 1942, Werner and Reichel 1994, Hendricks and Reichel 1996, Boundy 2001); hibernacula in Montana are not described. There is little information on the predators of this species, but they readily drop their tails, and tails have been found in stomachs of snakes (Nussbaum et al. 1983). There are no reports of predation on this species in Montana.
On the Washington coast body temperature ranged from 20 to 30 degrees C. and correlated with substrate temperature. Males basked during the height of spermatogenesis. Basking may be especially important in high elevation populations.
Reproductive Characteristics
No information is available specific to Montana. Based upon information from other locations the species apparently mates in April and May. One litter per year is produced, with litter size varying depending on the geographic locality (3 to 8 in the Seattle, Washington area, and 2 to 6 on the central Oregon coast, with a mean of 4 in both localities). Young are born live in about three months after eggs are fertilized (June to September). Females reach sexual maturity in 32 to 44 months in northern California (Nussbaum et al. 1983, St. Johns 2002, Stebbins 2003).
Management
No special management activities for Northern Alligator Lizards are defined at this time; the little incidental survey data available indicate that Western Skinks may be locally abundant in some areas of extensive talus slopes in Montana (P. Hendricks personal observation), even though the range of this species in the state is restricted to the northwestern counties. Systematic surveys of appropriate habitats for this lizard are highly desirable to establish habitat associations and preferences, periods of activity, food habits, and relative abundances in Montana.
References
- Additional ReferencesLegend:
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[NDTI] Northrop, Devine, and Tarbell Incorporated. 1994. Cabinet Gorge and Noxon Rapids hydroelectric developments 1993 wildlife study. Northrop, Devine, and Tarbell Incorporated, Portland, ME. 197 p.- Avise, J.C., B.W. Bowen, T. Lamb, A.B. Meylan, and E. Birmingham. 1992. Mitochondrial DNA evolution at a turtle's pace: evidence for low genetic variability and reduced microevolutionary rate in the Testudines. Molecular Biological Evolution 9:457-473.
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