Description: The eyes are yellow. There is a distinct fold along the sides. Reddish brown to yellowish gray with distinct crossbands on the back and tail. Dark stripes on the center of the underside scales. The young have a light band along the back.
Habitat: Grasslands, open woods, moist areas; wherever cover is plentiful, but primarily oak woodlands of foothills.
Breeding: Two to three clutches of 1 to 41 eggs (avergage is 12) are laid during the warm months.
Range: Southern Washington south through western Oregon and California into northern Baja California.
Diet: It feeds on almost any anmimal, vertebrate or invertebrate, that is can catch and swallow.
Behavior: Primarily diurnal. This lixzard can sometimes be foiund cloimbing bushes as it searches for prey. It stiffly prehensile tail can wrap over small branches to aid in climbing. If grabbed roughly, it may bite or deficate.
Conservation Status: Commercial and residential development have caused localized declines, but many populations exist in remote areas, and the species is tolerant of a modest amount of habitat alteration.
Additonal Notes: Elgaria multicarinata formerly was included in the genus Gerrhonotus
Subspecies: Three
California Alligator Lizard (E.m. multicarinata) - dark mottling on the head, red blotches down the middle of the back. Found in notherern California south along the coast and Cascade Mountains to Los Angeles, alos in San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz islands. Photo...
Oregon Alligator Lizard (E.m. scincicauda) - no dark marks on the top of the head and the scales of the upper foreleg are smooth. Found in southern Washington and the Columbia River Basin into western Oregon and northern California. Photo...
San Diego Alligator Lizard (E.m. webbi) - no dark marks on the head, 3 - 4 rows of keeled scales on the upper foreleg. Found in the Sierras east of the San Joaquin Valley southwest to the coast near Los Angeles, also the San Nicolas and Santa Catalina islands, and into Baja California. Photo...
