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From July 13th to the 27th I was in Lanzarote with my girlfriend. Herpetofauna of Lanzarote is limited the three species of lizard; the East Canary Gecko (Tarentola angustimentalis), the Atlantic Lizard (Gallotia atlantica), and the East Canary Skink (Chalcides simonyi). The former two species occur over practically all of the island and could be said to be common, but the skink appears to be limited to a small area of the north of the island (where it is rare), which we did not visit. All three species are found on Fuerteventura to the south of Lanzarote.

Similar to Paul Lambourne, I too expected the islands' reptiles to be easy to find, but it took until the third day to see the Atlantic Lizard, Gallotia atlantica. The lizards from the south of the island where we stayed are said to be smaller than those from the north of the island. I cannot comment on this as the plans to go to Haria were scrapped near the end of the holiday. Maybe next time I will get to search for Chalcides simonyi...

Temperatures were normally generally quite cool, in the low to mid 20's, as most days after the third were cloudy until about 3pm after which it warmed up. We also had light rain on three separate days. Not what you'd expect, but this was a blessing in disguise as it allowed us to explore more of the south of the island comfortably.

Here are the photos;

















The second species of lizard I found was the East Canary Gecko. The first individual was found close to death besides a path in the apartment complex; later that night many more healthy geckos were seen on the walls.













I hope you liked it.

Very nice trip report. The last gecko picture is really beautiful. Also like the little gecko. And I love your favorite pic, that's a good one. The Canary Islands are a place that I really have to go visit in the near future, not only four the herps but also to look at volcanic rocks. *g*

Hi Daniel, sorry to be chipping in a bit late on this one but I enjoyed the photos.

Like yourself I visited Lanzarote but back in October till December 2010. During that time we stayed in the north of the island and spent sometime searching for the enigmatic skink without success. We even quizzed some of the locals who said they had never seen the lizard. I'm not questioning it's existence, just trying to indicate how difficult the thing is to locate. So many rocks, so many rocks...

Gallotia atlantica it was common in the north of the island and the markings along the flanks seemed variable in brightness, colour and pattern. I didn't notice any size difference from north to south.

Cheers.