- Which native lizard species are there?
- How do lizards live?
- How can I make my garden lizard friendly?
In the past, you could see them quite often in gardens: lizards warming themselves while bathing in the sun, sitting on a rock. Children and young people have often never seen a lizard. In today's portrait, we introduce you to the nimble animals and show you how you can create a habitat for the reptiles in your garden.
There are five different species of lizards that thrive in the German climate
Which native lizard species are there?
With a bit of luck, one of these five species of lizards can be found in the garden:
- wall lizard
- sand lizard
- green lizard
- wood lizard
- mountain lizard
How do lizards live?
Lizards are reptiles and are cold-blooded animals. They cannot regulate their temperature themselves, but need sunlight to warm themselves. This is the reason why you can often see the shy animals sunbathing.
Lizards lay eggs surrounded by a leathery shell. The female places these in a hole in the ground where they are hatched by the sun. With the wood lizard, however, this is a little different: Since it is adapted to a rather cool habitat, the egg shell bursts as soon as the eggs are laid and the viable young animals hatch.
How can I make my garden lizard friendly?
A diversely designed, not too tidy garden not only offers good living conditions for lizards. The shy reptiles find shelter here, for example, in hedges and piles of brushwood. Open and partly raised areas such as a rock garden or a small natural stone wall offer optimal conditions for sunbathing. Sparsely overgrown, loose soil is suitable for laying eggs.
Even if you don't see lizards very often, the animals are diurnal and quite sedentary. Refrain from using insecticides, as spiders, beetles, snails and worms serve as food for the reptiles.
Refuges in which the lizards can hide are of great importance. A dry wall with deep gaps is ideal. These can be made extremely attractive by attractive planting or replanting and can be easily integrated into the look of the garden.
tips
Please do not catch any lizards in the wild out of misunderstood love of animals in order to settle them in your own garden. The local animals usually do not survive this. If your garden is designed to be lizard-friendly, the reptiles will usually settle there by themselves.