A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Western Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis

Great Basin Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis longipes

Baird, 1859 “1858”

Click on a picture for a larger view

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

Orange: Range of this subspecies in California
Sceloporus occidentalis longipes -
Great Basin Fence Lizard

Range of other subspecies in California:

Bright Green: Sceloporus occidentalis becki -
Island Fence Lizard

Bright Blue: Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus -
San Joaquin Fence Lizard

Dark Blue: Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii -
Coast Range Fence Lizard

Red: Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis -
Northwestern Fence Lizard

Purple: Sceloporus occidentalis taylori -
Sierra Fence Lizard

Dark Gray: Hybrid Zones

Click on the map for a topographical view

Map with California County Names

Northwest Page

Adult male, Inyo County

Adult, San Diego County

Adult male, Inyo County

Adult female, Inyo County

Adult female, Los Angeles County

Adult male, Inyo County

Adult male, 5,500 ft., San Diego County

Adult female, Inyo County
© John Sullivan

Adult male, San Diego County

Adult male, 7,300 ft. Mono County

Adult, Inyo County

Young male, Inyo County

Adult male, Mono County
© Keith Condon

Adult male, Modoc County

Adult male,1600 ft. San Gabriel Mountains foothills,
Los Angeles County © Lori Paul

Adult male, 9,300 ft. White Mountains, Inyo County

Adult female, Orange County

Adult, Inyo County

Young male, San Diego County

Pale adult female, Lassen County. © Debbie Frost

Adult, Inyo County

Adult female, Inyo County

Adult male, Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Steve Bledsoe

Adult male, Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Keith Condon

Adult male, Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Zeev Nitzan Ginsburg

Adult, New York Mountains, San Bernardino County © Sean Barefield

Adult, Granite Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Keith Condon

Western Fence Lizards have overlapping keeled scales with spines on them over much of their body.

Juveniles

Juvenile, Los Angeles County

Hatchlings, San Diego County © Shelly Hancock

Hatchling, San Diego County
© Ketarah Shaffer

These hatchlings may have hatched from the nest in a San Diego County yard shown below.
They were photographed near the nest site in September. © Connie McDowell

This picture shows the difference in color and pattern between an adult female Side-blotched lizard (above) and juvenile Western Fence Lizards (below) © Mark Miller

Juvenile, Mono County © Keith Condon

Juvenile, Orange County
© Juan Carlos Tecson Gonzalez

Color and Pattern Variations

Dark-phase adult male, Riverside Co.
© Guntram Deichsel

Dark-phase adult,
San Bernardino County

Dark-phase adult,
San Bernardino County
© Bo Zaremba

Adult, Inyo Mountains, Inyo County

The three lizards shown above were photographed in mountainous areas in the northern part of Joshua Tree National Park, where the dark phase appears to be common. Other dark-phase lizards from desert mountains are shown in the main photo section above from the Kingston, Granite, and New York Mountains.

Adult female from Orange County coast, showing yellow coloring on sides and armpits. © Beverly Gandall

Two adults, most likely females, with yellow markings, from the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles County © Jonathan Hakim

© Patrick Briggs
Unusual striped fence lizard from San Bernardino County, where a striped form occurs among populations of normally-patterned fence lizards.

This unusually pale adult found in Orange County appears to be missing some of the typical dark pigment. (That's a San Diego Alligator Lizard behind it sharing its territory.) © Jacob H. Lloyd Davies

This is the same lizard shown to the left, photographed about 5 weeks later. It looks even paler now. The lack of color appears to be genetic on this individual, but it would be leucistic, not albino, since the eyes are dark. © Jacob H. Lloyd Davies

Adult, Riverside County with unusually bright white scales. © Cody Merylees

Rusty-Orange or Yellow Great Basin Fence Lizards (and other unusual skin coloring )

I have been sent quite a few pictures of spiny lizards that appear to have an unnatural color painted on them, some of which you can see below. Most are rusty-orange or yellow, but some are white or gray or bluish. These are most likely not naturally-occurring aberrant pigments, though that is sometimes observed, as you can see above. These unnatural colors are most likely from human-made substances such as paint or rust or some other chemical. These substances may be added to the lizard in a place where it takes shelter or overwinters. (Someone sent me pictures of a gray lizard that we figured out was colored by paint recently used on her house.) Most of these lizards are Great Basin Fence Lizards, probably because they are common lizards that live among humans in the most populated areas of the state and are easily observed. Living among humans makes them more likely to become contaminated by paint or chemicals.

If an artificial color has been added to the lizard's skin it should fade with time and disappear when the skin is shed. This was observed on a bright orange lizard that was regularly seen at public gardens in Pasadena. The same lizard was observed a few months later with the color faded considerably, indicating that the color was added to the skin and not a natural pigment. Other lizards show signs of the skin peeling away the added color.

However, some of these lizards were found in undeveloped open space where human-used chemical contamination is not as likely a cause. It has been suggested that these lizards might be covered with fungal spores or pollen. I received one report of orange-yellow fence lizards that were captured in California that were covered with something resembling spores or pollen that was easily brushed off, which confirms that theory. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of them to confirm that.

A similarly-colored orange American Alligator was seen in South Carolina. It was suggested that it might have overwintered in a rusty culvert pipe where the rust gave it the color, but again, that was just one theory. USA Today 2/10/17.

You can see more pictures of similar unusually-colored spiny lizards on this page.

This apparent fence lizard was found in May in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County. © Michael DeMarquette.

This is another apparent adult fence lizard with a rusty-orange coloration that was found in late February in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County.
© Dana Duncan

This is another adult from Los Angeles County with rusty coloring, photographed in mid February © Max Roberts

This unusual pale yellow Great Basin Fence Lizard was photographed in a yard in San Diego County in early May.
© Rosanne

This rusty-colored adult was found in the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles County in late March. © James Hess

© Elysia Hodges
This adult was found in Orange County. It's not orange or yellowish like the others, it has some sort of white substance on much of its body. You can see some skin shedding from the nose, and part of the head is the normal color where the skin that was painted white has been shed. In a picture taken a few days earlier the lizard's head was completely white.

Adult, observed in mid March on a trail in Orange County. © Austin Xu

A herpetologist suggested that this lizard might have been covered in fungal spores. It's not clear if he was talking about Yellow Fungus Disease (aka CANV) which sometimes afflicts captive lizards, but this lizard and the others in this section all appear to be in good health and living in clean habitats, which makes that disease an unlikely cause of the unusual coloring. Nevertheless it's an interesting theory for the color.
You can read more comments about this lizard at its observation page on iNaturalist.

© Roger Hatton
This bright orange lizard was observed in Los Angeles County in late March. The person who reported it knows and has handled fence lizards and describes the color as the color of the skin, not a color that was added. If the color is part of the skin itself then the unusual appearance might be due to piebaldism - scattered normal and abnormal pigment areas, which would explain the dark head and the other dark areas. That would make it a more natural aberration that what appears to he happening with most of the other lizards here, but the cause of the coloring is still not known.

© Roger Hatton
Two weeks later the lizard shown to the left appears a bit duller in color and a little "dustier" looking when in the shade, which might indicate that it is indeed covered with some substance that gives it the orange color. We can also see that he is a male, and now during the breeding season he has been observed interacting with females who apparently don't mind his unusual appearance.

Three months after receiving this picture I was told that the lizard had slowly faded even more.

This unusually silver-blue-colored Great Basin Fence Lizard was found in San Diego County. © Ralph Petrozello

Nesting

A female fence lizard lays her eggs in a nest she dug on a San Diego County patio in mid June.
© Connie McDowell

This hatchling lizard was found near the nest site in September. It may have hatched from eggs deposited there. More pictures of hatchling lizards found near this nest are shown above in the "Juveniles" section. © Connie McDowell

Gravid adult female fence lizard in San Diego County in late May digging in loose dirt that had been recently dug up, most likely to use as a place to lay her eggs.
© Bill Bachman

The location where the lizard was digging as it looked the following day, after she apparently concealed the location by packing the dirt over the eggs and re-arranging the vegetation. (Her activity was not observed, only the results.) © Bill Bachman

This is the overall location of the San Diego backyard where the fence lizard dug her nest.
© Bill Bachman

Male Displays and Interactions

Two males fighting over territory in May in the San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County. The winner claims the rock - far right.
© Mike Dorsey

Adult male territorial display.
© Jason Rojas

Two adult males fighting in April, San Bernardino County.
© Jason Rojas

Adult male in defensive display during breeding season, Los Angeles County.
© Nao Rains

Sub-adult with throat display 6,000 ft. Inyo County

Adult male defensive display, Los Angeles County. © Douglas S. Brown

Two adult males in spectacular breeding colors fight over territory in April in Los Angeles County. © Douglas S. Brown
To see the full series of pictures of the battle, click here.

This short video shows two male Great Basin Fence Lizards fighting over territory, biting on to each other's mouth. San Diego County © Stan Budz

Predation, Parasites, and other Dangers

California Striped Racer eating a male Great Basin Fence lizard

Adult male with ticks on the side of his head.

Sean Kelly © shot this series of a California Striped Racer eating a male Great Basin Fence lizard in San Diego County.

Pacific Gopher Snake eating a Western Fence Lizard

California Striped Racers eat mosly lizards. This one is swallowing a Western Fence Lizard while holding the front third of its body straight up off the ground. This racer usually hunts with its head in this elevated position.

Juvenile Pacific Gopher Snake eating a Western Fence Lizard © Daniel Harris

Juvenile fence lizards are preyed upon by many other animals, including the black widow spider. © Rory Doolin

Sean Kelly found this juvenile Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake eating a Great Basin Fence Lizard behind his garbage can one afternoon in San Diego County.
© Sean Kelly

A California Striped Racer swallows a male Northwestern Fence Lizard in
El Dorado County © Jim Bennett

This adult was rescued from synthetic mesh fencing in which it was trapped in San Diego County. © Mark Miller

Habitat

Habitat, Inyo County

Habitat, coastal San Diego County

Habitat, San Gabriel Mountains,
Los Angeles County

Habitat, Santa Ana Mountains,
Riverside County

Habitat, Sierra foothills,
Kern County

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

Habitat, Mohave Desert,
San Bernardino County

Habitat, Laguna Mountains,
San Diego County

Habitat, 6,000 ft. Inyo County

Habitat, Tehachapi Mountains,
Kern County

Habitat, riparian zone at edge of San Bernardino mountains and Mohave Desert.

Adult in habitat, Inyo County

Habitat, Santa Ana Mountains,
Riverside County

Adult in brush pile habitat, Inyo County

Short Videos of Great Basin Fence Lizards

A female fence lizard runs across a wall in Riverside County and encounters a male who pursues her. She rejects him and he runs to an open spot on top of the wall and does a push-up display.

A male fence lizard in Inyo County defensively showing his throat color and doing push-ups.

Large, dark phase Great Basin Fence Lizards bask and eat ants off rocks in Inyo County.

Short Videos of Other Subspecies of Western Fence Lizard

A male Northwestern Fence Lizard defecates off the side of a Butte County fence, wipes himself off, then does a territorial push-up display.

I'm not going out of my way trying to film this behavior - I can only take what I get - so here we see another Northwestern Fence Lizard doing his business for the camera. It's like they're trying to tell me something.

Two Coast Range Fence Lizards, Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii, are observed during the breeding season in early May in San Benito County. The first lizard, a female, has moved from her perch on a rock to a nearby rock in order to get away from the photographer. She begins a territorial push-up display when a male comes up the side of the rock and begins to pursue her. She arches her back and hops away in order to reject him. She may have already mated and is bearing eggs, or maybe he is not her type. He finally stops and does a push-up display, possibly to continue trying to entice her, or possibly to warn the photographer that this is his territory.

A few fence lizards in Contra Costa County.

A male fence lizard on a tree in Alameda County.

Several juvenile fence lizards come out to bask in the sun on a cool and windy morning in early March.

San Joaquin Fence Lizards on trees along a river in early spring.

Sierra Fence lizards run around a rocky area in the woods 8,000 ft. high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

A Sierra Fence Lizard, or intergrade, runs around rocks in the forest up at 5,600 ft. in Tuolumne County.

These two videos show a Placer County Northwestern Fence Lizard appearing to taunt a garter snake (a Mountain Gartersnake is my guess, because it lacks red.) The lizard keeps moving down towards the snake but when the snake moves towards the lizard, apparently trying to catch it for dinner, the lizard runs up the wall away from the snake. © Rod

Description

Size

Grows up to nearly 4 inches long from snout to vent (10 cm).

Appearance

A fairly small lizard with large overlapping keeled scales with spines on them on the back and sides.
Scales on the backs of the thighs are mostly keeled.

Color and Pattern

Color is brown, gray, or black with narrow irregular crossbars.
Often the color is completely black, especially on dark-phase lizards that have not completely warmed up.
Sometimes light markings on the sides of the backs form stripes or irregular lines, and sometimes dark blotching may form irregular bands.
The base color of the throat and underside are typically pale to dark gray and sometimes black.

"A distinctively striped form, with continuous dorsolateral light stripes, occurs among populations of normally patterned individuals in the Joshua Tree National Monument and elsewhere in San Bernardino County, California, and in Baja California del Norte, Mexico."
(Banta, 1963 - cited in Bell & Price, 1996)

Male / Female Differences

Males have blue markings on the sides of the belly edged in black, a single large blue patch on the throat, enlarged postanals, enlarged femoral pores, and a swollen tail base.
On some males the throat and dorsal coloring around the bright blue can be very dark.
Some scales on a male's back and tail become blue or greenish when he is in the light phase.

Females have a plain belly or one with faint blue markings, no blue or green color on the upper surfaces, and dark bars or crescents on the back.

Young

Juveniles have little or no blue on the throat and either faint blue belly markings or none at all.

Differences Between the Western Fence Lizard and the Similar Sagebrush Lizard in California

Life History and Behavior

Activity

Diurnal.
Often seen basking in the sun on rocks, downed logs, trees, fences, and walls.
Prefers open sunny areas.
Active when temperatures are warm, becomes inactive during periods of extreme heat or cold, when they shelter in crevices and burrows, or under rocks, boards, tree bark, etc. Probably active all year in warmer parts of its range when temperatures are favorable and there is sun for basking.

Common and easily encountered in the right habitat.
This is probably the species of lizard most often seen in the state due to its abundance in and near populated areas and its conspicuous behavior.

Territoriality

Males establish and defend a territory containing elevated perches where they can observe mates and potential rival males.
Males defend their territory and try to attract females with head-bobbing and a push-up display that exposes the blue throat and ventral colors. Territories are ultimately defended by physical combat with other males.

Defense

The tail can break off easily, but it will grow back.
The detached tail wriggles on the ground which can distract a predator from the body of the lizard allowing it time to escape.
More information about tail loss and regeneration.

Diet and Feeding

Eats small, mostly terrestrial, invertebrates such as crickets, spiders, ticks, and scorpions, and occasionally eats small lizards including its own species.

Reproduction

Adults breed in the spring of their second year.
Courtship and mating take place from late April to early June.
Egg laying occurs 2 - 4 weeks after copulation, usually from June to July.
Females lay 1-3 clutches of 3 - 17 eggs (averaging 8) in a season.
Females dig small pits in loose damp soil (often at night) where they lay the eggs.
Eggs have white leathery shells and measure 8 by 14 mm.
Eggs hatch in about 60 days, usually from July to September.

(Stebbins, 2003; Nussbaum et al, 1983)

Western Fence Lizards and Lyme Disease

In California, western black-legged ticks (deer ticks) are the primary carriers of Lyme disease. Very tiny nymphal deer ticks are more likely to carry the disease than adults. A protein in the blood of Western Fence Lizards kills the bacterium in these nymphal ticks when they attach themselves to a lizard and ingest the lizard's blood. This could explain why Lyme disease is less common in California than it is in some areas such as the Northeastern states, where it is epidemic.

More Information: (Berkeleyan April 1998)

In an interesting twist, UC Berkeley researchers have found that when fence lizards are removed from an area, the population of Lyme disease-carrying ticks plummets. Up to 90 percent of juvenile Western black-legged ticks, the species that carries the Lyme disease bacteria, feed on Western Fence Lizards. When lizards are no longer available, 95 percent of the ticks fail to find another host to feed on.

More Information: (Berkeley News February 2011)

Habitat

Found in a wide variety of open, sunny habitats, including woodlands, grasslands, scrub, chapparal, forests, along waterways, suburban dwellings, where there are suitable basking and perching sites, including fences, walls, woodpiles, piles of rocks and rocky outcrops, dead and downed trees, wood rat nests, road berms, and open trail edges.

Geographical Range

This subspecies is found in coastal and montane southern California north to Santa Barbara County and east along the mountains into the Owens Valley and Eastern Sierra Nevada region and Great Basin Desert of northeastern California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Idaho. It is not found in the southern California deserts except in isolated groups at higher elevations in the Ord, Providence, and New York mountains, the Mid-hills region, and the Kingston Range. (Stebbins 2003) I have received a report that they also occur in the Granite Mountains.

The species Sceloporus occidentalis ranges from northern Baja California north to Washington and east to Idaho, Nevada and Utah.

The ranges of subspecies shown on the range map above are based mostly on Ryan Calsbeek's distribution map.

An alternate interpretation of the ranges of S. o. longipes and S. o. occidentalis showing S. o. occidentalis present in northeastern California and central Oregon instead of S. o. longipes can be seen here.

Elevational Range

The species Sceloporus occidentalis - Western Fence Lizard, is found at elevations from sea level to around 10,800 ft.
(3,300 m.) (Stebbins, 2003)

Notes on Taxonomy

The taxonomy of Sceloporus occidentalis needs to be studied further. Six subspecies have been traditionally recognized based on geographic variation in morphology, but molecular studies have identified four major clades and eleven different genetic groups in California (James Archie, Cal State University Long Beach). The current taxonomy does not correspond with the ongoing research, so it is certain that in the future the current subspecies and their ranges will be completely revised, probably with several new species described. For this reason some experts no longer recognize any subspecies of S. occidentalis pending further studies.

I am taking a conservative approach, retaining all six of the traditionally-recognized subspecies on my list until a definitive study of the species is published and accepted.

The most recent SSAR Names List (2017) removed the subspecies S. o. taylori and now shows only five subspecies, but many authorities have already accepted research that concludes that S. o. becki, the Island Fence Lizard, is a unique species - Sceloporus becki (Wiens & Reeder, 1997) (Bell, 2001) which would leave only four subspecies of S. occidentalis.

Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)

Commonly called: Bluebelly, Blue-bellied Lizard, Fence Lizard, Swift, Fence Swift

Sceloporus occidentalis - Western Fence Lizard (no subspecies recognized) (Stebbins 2003, 2012, 2018)
Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - Great Basin Fence Lizard (Stebbins 1966, 1985)
Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - Western Fence Lizard (Smith 1946)
Sceloporus occidentalis bi-seriatus - Fence Lizard (Sceloporus longipes; Sceloporus undulatus bocourtii, part; Sceloporus undulatus thayeri, part; Sceloporus undulatus undulatus, part; Sceloporus [bi-seriatus] var. marmoratus; Sceloporus occidentalis, part; Sceloporus bi-seriatus. var. A. azureeus; Sceloporus bi-sieriatus var. B. variegatus. Fence Swift; Western Swift; Two-lined Lizard; Thayer's Alligator Lizard, part; Western Alligator Lizard, part; Blue-bellied Lizard, part; Common Swift; long-footed Lizard; Two-striped Lizard) (Grinnell and Camp 1917)

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

None

Taxonomy
Family	Phrynosomatidae	Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards	Fitzinger, 1843
Genus	Sceloporus	Spiny Lizards	Wiegmann, 1828
Species	occidentalis	Western Fence Lizard	Baird and Girard, 1852
Subspecies	longipes	Great Basin Fence Lizard	Baird, 1859 “1858”
Original Description
Sceloporus occidentalis - Baird and Girard, 1852 - Prox. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 6, p. 175 Sceloporus occidentalis longipes - Baird, 1858 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 12, p. 254 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Sceloporus - Greek -skelos leg and porus - pore or opening - refers to the femoral pores on hind legs occidentalis - Latin - western - refers to its western distribution longipes - Latin - longi - long and pes - foot from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Related or Similar Neighboring California Lizards
Western Fence Lizards: Sceloporus occidentalis becki - Island Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - San Joaquin Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii - Coast Range Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis - Northwestern Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis taylori - Sierra Fence Lizard Sagegrush Lizards: S. graciosus graciosus - Northern Sagebrush Lizard S. graciosus gracilis - Western Sagebrush Lizard S. graciosus vandenburgianus - Southern Sagebrush Lizard Sceloporus orcutti - Granite Spiny Lizard Sceloporus magister uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard Sceloporus magister transversus - Barred Spiny Lizard
More Information and References
California Department of Fish and Wildlife 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. Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983. Wiens & Reeder (1997 Herpetological Monographs 11: 1-101) Bell (2001 Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 37(4): 137-142) S. Morey. Western Fence Lizard Family: Phrynosomatidae R022. California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System California Department of Fish and Game. Originally published in Zeiner, D.C., W.F.Laudenslayer, Jr., K.E. Mayer, and M. White, eds. 1988-1990. 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. Bell, E.L. and A.H. Price. Sceloporus occidentalis. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. 1996

Conservation Status
The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the April 2024 State of California Special Animals List and the April 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. Check the current California Department of Fish and Wildlife sport fishing regulations to find out if this animal can be legally pursued and handled or collected with possession of a current fishing license. You can also look at the summary of the sport fishing regulations as they apply only to reptiles and amphibians that has been made for this website. 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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