Exterminators won’t touch them and for good reason, as the placement of poisons can affect other species and cause a ripple effect on the birds, raccoons, cats and other animals that are developing a taste for wall lizards. The only effective way is trapping, says Gavin Hanke, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Royal British Columbia Museum, who has been tracking wall lizards as populations have exploded over the past two decades. He estimates there are 500,000 to 700,000 common wall lizards on Vancouver Island. The fast-moving lizards can grow up to 20 centimetres long from nose to tip of tail and range as far north as Campbell River. There have been new sightings on Salt Spring and Pender islands.
What began as someone’s pet more than 50 years ago in Saanich has now ballooned into an invasive species spreading across the South Island and even the Lower Mainland.
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They are crawling all over Saanich and Victoria, in thick bunches on the Peninsula and in Langford. They’ve been spotted in Metchosin. There are large populations in Shawnigan Lake and Nanaimo and they’ve even been seen as far north as Campbell River.
Now they have made the move to Salt Spring and Pender islands.
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Wall lizards native to temperate climates like Italy around the Mediterranean have been on the move on the Island since they were first set free from a roadside Central Saanich zoo more than 50 years ago.
They are crawling all over Saanich and Victoria, in thick bunches on the Peninsula and in Langford. They’ve been spotted in Metchosin. There are large populations in Shawnigan Lake and Nanaimo and . . .
They are crawling all over Saanich and Victoria, in thick bunches on the Peninsula and in Langford. They’ve been spotted in Metchosin. There are large populations in Shawnigan Lake and Nanaimo and . . .