Plateau fence lizard
A gray-brown lizard with blue belly patches on the males, sharing sunny rock at Mesa Verde and Black Canyon with the flashier collared lizard.
Plateau fence lizard at a glance
Sceloporus tristichus PLAY-toh FENS LIZ-erd; Sceloporus tristichus is skel-OP-or-us TRISS-tih-kuss
- Type
- Reptile · lizards
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Size
- Small enough to fit in a kid's palm: up to about 3 inches (80 mm) from nose to the base of the tail, plus a long tail.
Eats ants, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, occasionally a smaller lizard
It hunts from open, sunlit ground near rock or pinyon-juniper woodland, snapping up ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders, and will take a smaller lizard when it finds one.
Should you worry?
No venom, and harmless if left alone. Like many lizards, it may bite if someone grabs it. The same rule NPS gives for Black Canyon's lizards applies here: look, don't grab, and let it keep basking.
Something small flickers off a sunlit rock at Black Canyon and most eyes go looking for the collared lizard, the park’s showier reptile with its bold neck bands and running-on-two-legs trick. What actually moved is often smaller and plainer: gray-brown, pointed, ridged scales instead of smooth skin, a lizard with no collar at all.
Look closer at a male holding still on the same rock and the plainness has a hidden switch. Flip him over, or catch him at the right angle in a push-up display, and two dark-edged blue patches show on the belly, with two more blue blotches under the throat. NPS says lizards at Black Canyon, this one included, do push-ups on sunny rock to attract a mate or warn off a rival, and the blue is the whole point of the show. Females mostly skip the display; their patches, when they have any, are faint.
It spends its days working the same sunny, open ground for ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders, small enough itself to fit in a kid’s palm. Mesa Verde’s own species records still file it under an old name, lumped in with a wider fence-lizard group, evidence of how easy this lizard is to overlook next to its flashier neighbor. Watch the rock a little longer, and the flash of blue is the tell that you found the right one.
Did you know?
- Males flash two blue belly patches and two blue throat blotches; on females the patches are faint or missing.
- NPS says Black Canyon's lizards, plateau lizards included, do push-ups on sunlit rocks to attract a mate or defend territory.
- It's easy to mix up with the bigger, brighter collared lizard sharing the same rock outcrops, but the plateau fence lizard is a smaller, different lizard, with pointed, keeled scales instead of the collared lizard's smooth ones.
Common questions
Is the plateau fence lizard the same as the collared lizard?
No. They share the same rocky ground at Mesa Verde and Black Canyon, but the plateau fence lizard is a different, smaller lizard with pointed, ridged scales, not the collared lizard's bold neck bands and smooth skin.
Are plateau fence lizards poisonous, and do they bite?
They are not poisonous and have no venom. Like many lizards, one may bite if grabbed, and UC IPM notes that lizard teeth can break the skin. Left alone, they are harmless to people.
What do plateau fence lizards eat?
Mostly insects: ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders, plus an occasional smaller lizard.
Why do lizards do push-ups on rocks?
NPS says it's a display to attract a mate or defend territory, a way of showing off without a fight.