A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Southern Alligator Lizard - Elgaria multicarinata

Woodland Alligator Lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard) -
Elgaria multicarinata webbii

(Baird, 1859 “1858”)

Click on a picture for a larger view

Description • Taxonomy • Species Description • Scientific Name • Alt. Names • Similar Herps • References • Conservation Status

Southern Alligator Lizards Caifornia Range Map

Dark Blue: Range of this subspecies in California
Elgaria multicarinata webbii -
Woodland Alligator Lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard)

Range of other subspecies:

Red: Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata -
Forest Alligator Lizard (California Alligator Lizard)

Click on the map for a topographical view

Map with California County Names

Baja California Page

Adult, 6,200 ft., San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County

Adult with regenerated tail, San Gabriel Mountains foothills, Los Angeles County

Adult, 6,200 ft., San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County

Adult with original tail, Kern County

Underside of Adult, Kern County
(Dark markings run through the
middle of the scales.)

Adult with partly regenerated tail, Tehachapi Mountains, Kern County

Adult eating a beetle, Los Angeles County © Huck Triggs

Adult, San Luis Obispo County

Adult, Inyo County, from this lizard's narrow range along the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which extends all the way north into Mono County.
© Keith Condon

Sub-adult, Orange County
© Tadd Kraft

Adult with partly regenerated tail,
Orange County © K. S. Swigart

This lizard was found in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains at 8,000 ft. elevation. © Dave Goodward

(This lizard was found overwintering under a board - coiled up in a protective posture.)

Even in the same location, this species can be found in a variety of colors and patterns. All of the seven different alligator lizards shown above
were found in the same general area near the San Luis Obispo coast, six of them from the same hillside. © Joel A. Germond

Adult a golden yellow back from Santa Barbara County © Max Roberts

This Santa Barbara County adult is in the middle of shedding its skin. Notice the line across the back where the unshed skin meets the freshly shed skin.
© Max Roberts

Adult, Kern County © Ryan Sikola

Adult with regenerated tail, Santa Catalina Island © Nathan Smith

Adult, Santa Catalina Island
© Nathan Smith

Sub-adult with regenerated tail, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County

Adult from East Anacapa Island,
Santa Barbara County.
© Phil Schmidt.

Adult from the Mojave Desert near Helendale, San Bernardino County, about 30 miles north of the San Bernardino mountains. San Diego Alligator Lizards such as this one have spread along riparian areas next to the Mohave River where it flows out of the mountains. This one found itself a niche in a well-irrigated golf course community not far from the river. © JP Benson

Adult, Santa Barbara County
© Francesca Heras

Adult, photographed lying still at the edge of a trail in San Luis Obispo County © Joanne Aasen

Alligator lizards sometimes tuck their legs along the sides of their body when they move or when they remain still. Sometimes people think they are looking at a snake when they don't see the legs sticking out.

Adult, Riverside County

Adult, Orange County - the same 16 inch (40.6 cm) lizard as shown directly below.
© Warren & James Koch

The Woodland (San Diego) Alligator Lizard is the longest subspecies of Southern Alligator Lizard. It can grow as long as 16 inches (40.6 cm) when the lizard has a complete tail which has never broken off. This giant with an unbroken tail, found in Orange County, measures a little more than 16 inches (40.6 cm) in total length.
© Warren & James Koch

This 15 inch long (38 cm) lizard was found in a backyard in Los Angeles County.
© Steve Haimwertz

This giant was found in San Diego County. It measures just over 16 inches (40.6 cm) in length including the tail. © Gary Grantham

Adult with a very long unbroken tail, San Diego County © Rick Nafis

Alligator lizards are good climbers, as you can see here. This large adult was found on a window screen in Los Angeles County. © Grace Macy

This adult was found climbing up a security door in Orange County.
© Mark Flores

This adult was found climbing up a stucco wall in Los Angeles County.

Alligator lizards are fairly common in suburban yards and gardens, especially in Southern California, and occasionally they enter garages and even houses as they wander around looking for food or water or mates, but this is the first one I've seen that was able to climb up a kitchen counter and fall into a sink.
© Ketarah Shaffer

The eye of this species is light, compared to the eye of the northern alligator lizard.

Adult males have a large triangular head.

All Western Alligator Lizards, genus Elgaria, have large rectangular keeled scales on the back that are reinforced with bone. (Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata is shown here).

Juveniles

Hatchlings lack the back markings and large scales that are characteristic of alligator lizards and for that they are often mistaken for small skinks, such as the Little Brown Skinks (Ground Skinks) that are common in some places in eastern North America. However, there are no tiny plain-backed native skinks in California.

Hatchling in August, San Diego County © Barry A. Rader

Hatchling in July, San Diego County © Jay Keller

Hatchling in September, Orange County. © Paul Hanson

Juvenile, San Diego County
© Sandra Wagner

Juvenile, Los Angeles County.
© Anne Vanoppen

Juvenile, Laguna Mountains, San Diego County, © Stuart Young

6-year-old lizard wrangler Enzo Forte holds a sub-adult alligator lizard that he found trying to kill and eat a potato bug in Ventura County. The lizard continued fighting even after being picked up. It struggled with the bug for about an hour before finally severing the bug's head.
© Domiane Forte.

Unusual Pigments and Patterns

To see more unusually pigmented or patterned Southern Alligator Lizards, look at the Forest Alligator Lizard page.

This foot-long Orange County adult with an unbroken tail appears to be anerythristic, lacking the red
pigment that produces the brown and reddish coloring normally found on this species. © Linda Kaplan

Melanistic adult male, coastal Los Angeles County. © Jean Taves

Young adult with high-contrast pattern, coastal Los Angeles County
© Don Huffman

Young adult with few markings, coastal Los Angeles County
© Don Huffman

This melanistic adult alligator lizard from Orange County has a lot of black pigment, but
does not compeltely lack other pigments since the feet are still yellow. © Stacy Schenkel

A juvenile with very little pattern from San Diego County.
© Richard Cazares

An amelanistic (without black pigment) lizard observed in Los Angeles County with a very long tail.
At about 10 inches in length, including the very long tail,it may still be a juvenile. © Amy Jaecker-Jones

This unusually-colored lizard found on a San Luis Obispo County beach is probaby anerythristic, or
lacking any red pigment. © Ryan Sikola

This adult was found in a backyard in Huntington Beach in Orange County. It appears to be Anerythristic - missing the red or orange pigment that would give it the red or brown coloring typical of the species.

An almost patternless amelanistic (without black pigment) adult from
Riverside County © Adam Helbert

The male (top) of this courting pair has an unusually bright pattern compared to the normal female he is biting. © Tim Ball

This adult found in Ventura appears to be amelanistic (without black pigment)
© Rosy

Parasites

It is common to find blood-engorged ticks attached to alligator lizards, especially in and around the ear openings, as you can see on the California Alligator Lizard on the left, on the Shasta Alligator Lizard in the middle, and on the
San Francisco Alligator Lizard on the right.

Adult Forest Alligator Lizard in Nevada County infested with ticks behind the ear. © Julia Ggem

The Tail Breaks Off as a Defense Mechanism but it Can Grow Back.

Many Woodland Alligator Lizards are found without a tail or with a tail that is in the process of growing back. This sometimes confuses people trying to identify them.
The tail can be intentionally detached by a lizard (caudal autotomy) which can distract a predator because the tail will continue wiggling, drawing the predator's attention to it while the lizard escapes. It can also be broken off by accident, especially when someone tries to pick up a frightened lizard that is thrashing its tail around. It will grow back (regenerate) but the new tail typically looks smoother and shorter and does not taper to a thin tip as an original tail does.

Adult San Bernardino County,
missing most of tail

Adult missing most of its tail,
San Diego County

Adult with a regenerated tail, San Bernardino County © Michael M. Phillips

Adult with regenerated tail,
Los Angeles County © Mike Ryan

This short video shows how an alligator lizard's tail thrashes around after it has been dropped to distract a predator. The tail moved for about 4-5 minutes, which has been cut down here to about a minute, showing several different speeds until it is just barely moving.

Adult, Los Angeles County. This lizard apparently suffered an injury to its tail (which was partly regenerated already), but the tail did not break off at the point of injury. The injury healed irregularly as you can see here.

Forked Tails

Sometimes when the tail of a Southern Alligator Lizard is broken off, two tails grow back from the break point.

Adult, Placer County, with a forked regenerated tail. © Sara Walhovd

Adult, Los Angeles County with a large forked tail. © Joshua Nyhus

Breeding Behavior

Liz Kubalek © found these courting lizards in this postion one March evening in San Diego County. They were still there the next morning, but gone by the afternoon.

A pair courting in March,
San Bernardino County
© Joy Lutz-Mizar

A pair courting in April,
San Bernardino County
© Aaron Fitzsimmons

This mating pair was found in
Los Angeles County.
© Steve Haimwertz.

Tess Prenger © found these mating lizards in her yard on February 8th in San Diego County.

One March morning, Carola Bundy © photographed these two males biting onto the head of a female on her porch in Los Angeles County. By the afternoon, the smaller lizard on the left was gone and the other two had moved to the driveway.

Bret Gross © found this frisky courting pair in his
Orange County yard in early March.

This amorous pair was found inside a dry children's wading pool in a Los Angeles County suburban backyard in mid April.
© Dana Zoulin

A pair found mating in an Orange County yard in late March. © Marissa Russell

Courting male and female in early April, San Diego County © Dan Boyd

Two adult males courting the same female on an Orange County sidewalk in mid April.

This pair was found mating in a garage in San Diego County in early April. © Jason Rosenberg

Courting pair of adults found in Ventura County. The male has a very striking intense pattern. It's not the best idea to pick up an alligator lizard by the tail for very long, but this male was not harmed. Notice that he is so determined to stay with the female he continues to hold on to her head even after they are picked up. © Tim Ball

Predators

Mark McCormick © shot this series of a Woodland Alligator Lizard biting onto the neck of a lizard-eating California Striped Racer in San Bernardino County. After the lizard finally let go, the snake quickly raced up a steep 15 foot high cliff up into some branches.

A Ventura County Woodland Alligator Lizard bites onto the nose of a predatory California Striped Racer, leaving it unable to strike. Eventually the lizard released its grip and the two ran in opposite directions. © Melissa Wantz

Red Coachwhip eating San Diego Alligator Lizard

A Red Coachwhip eating a Woodland Alligator Lizard. © Samantha Zahringer

Samantha Zahringer watched this coachwhip eat the lizard by her back door. Her kids saw the snake attack the lizard. It raised its head and neck off the ground, swayed for a moment, then struck quickly. Two other lizards nearby froze while the snake swallowed its meal, then they ran away quickly.

Mindy Langfus sent me a link to her YouTube video showing a Woodland Alligator Lizard biting onto the head of a predatory California Striped Racer in a Los Angeles County park, both of them spinning around trying to get the other one to let go.

This Woodland Alligator Lizard was found biting the head of a California Striped Racer on a driveway in Riverside County. My guess is that the snake tried to eat the lizard but the lizard defended itself by biting onto the snake's head. The outcome is unknown.

A California Kingsnake has captured a San Diego Alligator Lizard in San Luis Obispo County and is constricting the lizard in its coils. © Grigory Heaton

Habitat

Habitat, 6,200 ft.
San Bernardino County

Habitat, coastal Riverside County

Creekside habitat, 1,450 ft.,
Kern County

Habitat, riparian canyon,
Los Angeles County

Habitat, San Gabriel Mountains,
Los Angeles County

Habitat, Tehachapi Mountains,
Kern County

Habitat, San Diego County
coastal scrub

Habitat, San Gabriel Mountains,
Los Angeles County

Habitat, coastal San Diego County.
(This location was bulldozed and developed a few years later.)

Grassland habitat,
San Luis Obispo County

Habitat, Santa Cruz Island,
Santa Barbara County

Short Videos

A large adult Woodland Alligator lizard with a full tail sticks out his tongue in Kern County. Here you can see how an alligator lizard can look a lot like a snake when it crawls through the grass.

This video shows how an alligator lizard's tail thrashes around after it has been dropped to distract a predator. The tail moved for about 4-5 minutes, which has been cut down here to about a minute, showing several different speeds until it is just barely moving.

Watch a YouTube Video

This video that shows how a Woodland Alligator Lizard can move on its belly by pulling itself slowly ahead with its front legs while tucking its back legs up against the body to hide them, or maybe just to get them out of the way. This behavior might be an attempt to fool any prospective predators into thinking the lizard is a dangerous snake, not a harmless lizard. © David Van de Houten

Description

Size

E. multicarinata ranges in size from 2 7/8 - 7 inches in snout to vent length (7.3 - 17.8 cm) (Stebbins) and up to aprox.16 inches (38.1 cm) in total length, including the tail. E. m. webbii is the largest subspecies of Southern Alligator Lizard.

Appearance

Alligator lizards, genus Elgaria, are members of the family Anguidae, a family of lizards found in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

They are characterized by a thick rounded body with short limbs and long tail.

Large bony scales, a large head on an elongated body and powerful jaws probably give the lizards their common name.

The tail can reach twice the length of its body if it has never been broken off and regenerated.

Scales are keeled on the back, sides, and legs, with 14 rows of scales across the back at the middle of the body.
(Compare with the 16 rows of scales found on the Northern Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea.)

The scales of this subspecies are more heavily keeled than E. m. multicarinata.

A band of small granular scales separates the larger bone-reinforced scales on the back and on the belly, creating a fold along each side. These folds allow the body to expand to hold food, eggs, or live young. The fold contracts when the extra capacity is not needed.

The head of a male is broader than a female's with a more triangular shape.

Color and Pattern

Color is brown, grey, or yellowish above, sometimes with reddish or orange coloring on the middle of the back.
Usually there are 9 - 13 dark bands on the back, sides, and tail, with adjacent white spots. On some lizards these dark bands are very pronounced, on others they are covered with reddish or yellowish color.

The head is usually mottled with dark color.

Eyes

The eyes are light yellow around the pupils.
Compare with the darker eyes of a simillar species - the Northern Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea.

Lines on the Belly

Usually there are dark lines or dashes lengthwise on the belly which run through the middle of the scales.
Compare with the lines on the belly of the Northern Alligator Lizard - Elgaria coerulea, which run between the scales, along their edges.

Identifying Alligator Lizards in California

Young

Hatchlings are very thin and small, roughly 4 inches long, with smooth shiny skin with a plain tan, light brown, or copper colored back and tail. The sides are darker and sometimes mottled or barred as they are on adults. Juveniles gradually develop the large scales and heavy dark barring found on the back and tails of adults.

Life History and Behavior

Activity

Diurnal, crepuscular, and sometimes nocturnal: active during daylight and twilight, but sometimes active at night during hot weather.
Inactive during cold weather in winter.

Alligator lizards are generally secretive, tending to hide in brush or under rocks, although they are often seen foraging out in the open or on roads in the morning and evening. They are common inhabitants of suburban yards and garages. (I have received many emails asking me to identify alligator lizards found in yards and garages, and inside houses, mostly in Southern California, the Bay Area, and the Sacramento area.)

Movement

Moves with a snake-like undulating motion, often tucking the rear legs up against the side of the body and pulling itself along on its belly with the front feet.
The slightly prehensile tail can be used to wrap around vegetation when climbing.
A good swimmer, sometimes diving into the water to escape by swimming away.

Defense

The tail of an alligator lizard is easily broken off, as it is with many lizards.
The tail will grow back, although generally not as perfectly as the original.
A lizard may detach its tail deliberately as a defensive tactic. When first detached, the tail will writhe around for several minutes, long enough to distract a hungry predator away from the lizard.
More information about tail loss and regeneration.

Males sometimes also extrude the hemipenes when threatened.

Often when an alligator lizard is observed lying still or basking, it will tuck its legs back toward the body. This is probably a defensive measure to break up the outline of the lizard's body so that a predator can't tell that it's an animal with legs. This might be to give it the appearance of a stick or shadow or something not alive, or it might be to imitate a snake, since many animals are naturally afraid of snakes and will hesitate to approach or attack a snake.

Other defensive tactics used by alligator lizards are smearing the contents of the cloaca on the enemy and biting.
They often bite onto a predatory snake, on the neck or the head, rendering the snake unable to attack.
Samuel M. McGinnis (Stebbins & McGinnis, 2012) reports seeing a juvenile southern alligator lizard bite onto its own tail making itself impossible to be swallowed by a juvenile Alameda Striped Racer, which eventually gave up.

Diet and Feeding

Eats a variety of small invertebrates. Will also eat small lizards and small mammals. Occasionally feeds on bird eggs and young birds. (Stebbins)

Reproduction

Mating occurs in Spring, most likely from March through May.
Eggs are laid sometime from May to July and they hatch during late summer and early fall.
Young hatch fully-formed.

During the breeding season, a male lizard grabs on to the head of a female with his mouth until she is ready to let him mate with her. They can remain attached this way for many hours, almost oblivious to their surroundings. Besides keeping her from running off to mate with another male, this probably shows her how strong and suitable a mate he is.

Habitat

Grassland, open forest, chaparral. Common in foothill oak woodlands. Commonly found hiding under rocks, logs, boards, trash, other surface cover.
Recent (2019) high-elevation sightings in southern California indicate that this species can survive in areas with prolonged snow cover in winter.

Geographical Range

The subspecies Elgaria multicarinata webbii ranges in California from the Mexican border in San Diego County, north, primarily west of the transverse mountain ranges, to an intergrade range at Monterey Bay, and north along the Tehachapi mountains to northern Kern County. Also ranges north on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the Owens valley where it is found in some isolated populations at Grant Lake, the Alabama Hills near Independence, Walker pass, and Walker Creek near Olancha. Also found in the Mojave Desert along the Mojave River, and on several of the Channel Islands. (According to a 2014 report "Herpetofauna Biodiversity On Department of the Navy Shore Installations" the species is "confirmed as present on San Nicolas Island, where it is not native.")

The species Elgaria multicarinata ranges from southern Washington State south to northwestern Baja California, including San Martin and Los Coronados islands. Also found on most of the Channel Islands. Introduced into Las Vegas (where, apparently it is found in gardens.)

Most range maps, including mine, have shown the species absent from much of Del Norte and Humboldt counties along the northern California coast. After more than 50 years of showing that gap in his field guides, Stebbins shows the species present there in his 2012 field guide, and after learning of specimens found near Arcata and Crescent City, I have also filled in that gap. (The distribution of the species is probably fragmented in this area.)

Most range maps also show the species absent from most of the San Joaquin Valley due to the wetlands in the area in the past and the current agricultural development, but since they have been found in yards in cities in the valley such as Los Banos, it's possible they have spread to other cities and towns in the valley.

Elevational Range of this Subspecies

In his 2003 field guide, Stebbins states that the species Elgaria multicarinata occurs from sea level to over 5,000 ft. in elevation (1,524 m.) but since then E. m. webbii has been found at 7,250 ft. (2,210 m.) on Frazier Mountain in Ventura County, and at 8,000 ft. (2,438 m.) in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains. (A picture of it is shown above © Dave Goodward.) An even higher sighting was made in June 2019 at 8374 ft. (2552 m.) at Whitney Portal, Inyo County, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The highest elevation record documented for this species (as of 3/20) is 10,300 ft. (3139 m.) on top of Marion Mountain in the San Jacinto State Park Wilderness, Riverside County. At that location in June, 2019, Joseph Esparza observed a Southern Alligator Lizard basking in the sun on a large granite boulder that was partially surrounded by about 3 feet (1 m.) of snow on the ground. Snow was fully covering the entire north slope of the mountain at the time.
(Joseph E. Esparza & Gregory B. Pauly. Natural History Notes. Herpetological Review 51(1), 2020)

Notes on Taxonomy

The 2008 SSAR Herpetological Circular No. 37, Crother et al., included the following information about E. multicarinata subspecies:

"A molecular phylogeographic study of Feldman and Spicer (2006, Mol. Ecol. 15: 2201–2222) failed to support currently recognized subspecies boundaries within E. multicarinata (Fitch, 1938, Am. Midl. Nat. 20: 381–424). Haplotypes from the central Coast Ranges of California (formerly multicarinata) are more closely related to those from southern (webbii) rather than northern (multicarinata) California, while haplotypes from the Sierra Nevada (formerly webbii) are more closely related to those from northern (multicarinata) rather than southern (webbii) California. In addition, haplotypes representing E. m. multicariniata and E. m. scincicauda are phylogenetically intermixed, calling their separation into question."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2017 SSAR Herpetological Circular No. 43 Standard Names List follows two studies that don't support the traditional subspecies boundaries within E. multicarinata, changing the common names of the subspecies:

E. m. scincicauda - Oregon Alligator Lizrd is no longer recognized. Lizards formerly recognized as that subspecies become E. m. multicarinata - Forest Alligator Lizard.
E. m. multicarinata - California Alligator Lizard becomes E. m. multicarinata - Forest Alligator Lizard
E. m. webbii - San Diego Alligator Lizard becomes E. m. webbii - Woodland Alligator Lizard

E. multicarinata in the Sierra Nevada mountains, formerly E. m. webbii, become E. m. multicarinata - Forest Alligator Lizard.
E. multicarinata in the central Coast Ranges, formerly E. m. multicarinata, become E. m. webbii - Woodland Alligator Lizard.

The contact zones between the subspecies are in the Monterey Bay area and in Kern County north of the Kern River.

Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)

Elgaria multicarinata webbii - San Diego Alligator Lizard (Stebbins 2003, Stebbins & McGinnis 2012)
Gerrhonotus multicarinatus webbii - San Diego Alligator Lizard (Smith 1946, Stebbins 1966, 1985)
Gerrhonotus scincicauda webbii - San Diego Alligator Lizard (Gerrhonotus scincicauda ignavus; Gerrhonotus scincicauda, part; Gerrhonotus multicarinatus, part. Many-keeled Lizard, part; Webb's Lizard) (Grinnell and Camp 1917)

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

None

Taxonomy
Family	Anguidae	Alligator Lizards & Allies	Gray, 1825
Genus	Elgaria	Western Alligator Lizards	Gray, 1838
Species	multicarinata	Southern Alligator Lizard	(Blainville, 1835)
Subspecies	webbii	Woodland Alligator Lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard)	(Baird, 1859 “1858”)
Original Description
Elgaria multicarinata - (Blainville, 1835) - Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 4, p. 298, pl. 25, fig. 2 Elgaria multicarinata webbii - (Baird, 1858) - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 10, p. 255 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Elgaria - obscure - possibly named for an "Elgar" or a pun on "alligator." multicarinata - Latin multi many, and carinata keeled - refers to the keeled scales webbii - honors Webb, Thomas H. from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Related or Similar California Lizards
E. c. coerulea - San Francisco Alligator Lizard E. c. palmeri - Sierra Alligator Lizard E. c. shastensis - Shasta Alligator Lizard E. c. principis - Northwestern Alligator Lizard E. m. multicarinata - Forest Alligator Lizard E. panamintina - Panamint Alligator Lizard
More Information and References
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Dean H. Leavitt, Angela B. Marion, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, Tod W. Reeder. Multilocus phylogeny of alligator lizards (Elgaria, Anguidae): Testing mtDNA introgression as the source of discordant molecular phylogenetic hypotheses. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 110 (2017) 104–121. Chris R. Feldman and Greg S. Spicer. Comparative phylogeography of woodland reptiles in California: repeated patterns of cladogenesis and population expansion. Molecular Ecology (February, 2006) 15, pp. 2201–2222 Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012. Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972. Flaxington, William C. Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Field Observations, Distribution, and Natural History. Fieldnotes Press, Anaheim, California, 2021. Samuel M. McGinnis and Robert C. Stebbins. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians. 4th Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018. Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009. Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946. Joseph Grinnell and Charles Lewis Camp. A Distributional List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. University of California Publications in Zoology Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 127-208. July 11, 1917.

Conservation Status
The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the January 2024 State of California Special Animals List and the January 2024 Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California list (unless indicated otherwise below.) Both lists are produced by multiple agencies every year, and sometimes more than once per year, so the conservation status listing information found below might not be from the most recent lists. To make sure you are seeing the most recent listings, go to this California Department of Fish and Wildlife web page where you can search for and download both lists: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals. A detailed explanation of the meaning of the status listing symbols can be found at the beginning of the two lists. For quick reference, I have included them on my Special Status Information page. If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status you can also go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings. This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
Organization	Status Listing	Notes
NatureServe Global Ranking
NatureServe State Ranking
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)	None
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)	None
California Department of Fish and Wildlife	None
Bureau of Land Management	None
USDA Forest Service	None
IUCN

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Woodland Alligator Lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard) - Elgaria multicarinata webbii

Woodland Alligator Lizard (San Diego Alligator Lizard) -
Elgaria multicarinata webbii