BALKAN GREEN LIZARD
Walking around a bend in the road and coming face to face with this beastie is very memorable. This beautiful monster is the largest lizard in Greece, reaching 500mm in length. Adults are a wonderful green colour with fine black speckles, whereas the juveniles and half-grown lizards, are brown with 3 yellowish, white longitudinal stripes on their backs, (hence their scientific name, Lacerta Trilineata).
Lizards have the ability to self-amputate or autotomy as it is also called. This means it can discard its tail as a defence mechanism, to elude a predators grasp and thereby, allow them to escape.
Balkan greens can live up to 9 years. The females lay 6-20 eggs from May to July, with the young hatching after 30 days. These lizards are found in dense vegetation, hedgerows, bramble thickets and overgrown meadows and olive groves. They are usually heard before they are seen, but they do like to bask on asphalt roads. Their diet consists of large invertebrates like snails, beetles and grasshoppers, as well as small lizards, mammals and snakes.
