our lizard guest
Today, in addition to all the fun we had around the release, we also had a very cool visitor. After conferring with JST's wife's boss, we believe that it is a Northern Alligator Lizard. This one seems to have somewhat fewer markings than is traditional for the breed, and we were faced with an interesting situation.
Should we offer up this guy to science and posterity, or should we release him to the wild woods and streams of Mountain View. Well, after some thought, we all agreed that this guy should go free.
As to the absence of the normal alligator markings, perhaps this guy is a juvenile or some kind of as yet uncataloged variety. Whatever the case may be, we enjoyed our good omen on release day and hope he does well avoiding the birds over near the creek.
reactions, thoughts, comments, etc.
Feel free to read all the "he"s and "guy"s as "she"s and "gal"s if you want this to be a female northern alligator. I don't have the first clue on lizard gender and decided to go with male.
- A
Posted by: Asa Dotzler | October 24, 2006 7:45 PM
Free The Lizard! :-)
Posted by: mcsmurf | October 25, 2006 12:18 AM
If U love somebody... set them free ;)
Posted by: Gabi | October 25, 2006 12:47 AM
Cool, releasing a lizard on release day. That's the way to go for Mozilla :)
Posted by: Martin 'MMx' Creutziger | October 25, 2006 1:05 AM
Yes, let everybody be free.
Posted by: a | October 25, 2006 11:15 AM
Correction: It was my wife and her boss Jens Vindum (http://www.calacademy.org/research/herpetology/Vindum.htm) that identified our visitor as a Northern Alligator lizard (Elgaria Coerulea). Jens is the collections manager at the herpetology department at the California Academy of Sciences.
Posted by: jst | October 25, 2006 4:04 PM
must be a long distance cousin of our Mozilla lizard :)
Posted by: Mgz | October 26, 2006 3:55 AM
If I knew that particular Flock, I'd tell them to be friends with the lizard ;)
Posted by: Will Pate | October 30, 2006 10:25 AM