Behavior
These lizards are commonly seen sunning on paths, rocks, and fence posts, and other high places, which makes them an easy target for predation by snakes, birds, and even some mammals, such as shrews. They protect themselves by employing their fast reflexes, which is common in many other lizards.
The western fence lizard eats spiders and insects.
Like most other lizards, S. occidentalis goes through a period of hibernation during the winter. The length of time and when they emerge varies depending on climate. During the mating season, adult males will defend a home range.
Read more about this topic: Western Fence Lizard
Famous quotes containing the word behavior:
“Growing up human is uniquely a matter of social relations rather than biology. What we learn from connections within the family takes the place of instincts that program the behavior of animals; which raises the question, how good are these connections?”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“There are ... two minimum conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of a legal system. On the one hand those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system’s ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and on the other hand, its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials.”
—H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus)
“No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual’s individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol—cross or crescent or whatever—that symbol is man’s reminder of his duty inside the human race.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)