Facts and Information
When it comes to reproduction for the Lizard it often depends on their location and the specific species. For example some of them lay eggs and others give birth to live young because the eggs develop inside the mother. Even with such differences though there are some common elements found in their mating process to take a look at. Lizards can be ready to mate when they are a year old for most of the small and medium species. For the larger ones it may be two or three years of age.
There are a few species of Lizards that take part in asexual reproduction. This means that they don’t need to find a mate in order for them to be able to produce offspring. They have the ability to create the young on their own. There are very few Lizards that do this as well as very few types of living creatures in the world with this ability.
Typically it takes two Lizards for mating – a male and a female. The base of the tail has glands and during mating season they will produce very strong odors that attract the opposite gender. The females are often attracted to the males that give off the strongest odors.
The males may travel a large distance to be able to find females that they can mate with.
Once mating has occurred the pair will go their separate ways. The male will move along to try to find more females that he can successfully mate with. The females though have to start looking for ways to ensure the young survive.
For the species that lay eggs the female will find a safe place where she can successfully deposit her eggs. She has to find a place to keep them safe from predators. Once she deposits the eggs she will leave them and not return. It can take about 3 months for the eggs to hatch but it depends on the species and the location.
The eggs have a very sturdy leather like outer shell. The female will try to find a place that offers great vegetation to help keep the eggs warm. This includes sand or areas of vegetation that are rotten. There are species that only lay a single egg but most species deposit several into the nest at a time.
The young have to find their way out of the eggs on their own. They also have to care for their own needs from the second that they emerge. Those females that carry the young in her body until they are born will also leave them when they arrive. These young reptiles instinctively know how to fend for themselves. They are miniature replicas of their adult parents.
There are many misconceptions about Lizards that give birth to live young. The speculation is that they would automatically offer milk to the young as other mammals do. However, there is no milk production and there is no nurturing of any kind. This is something that is very fascinating to researchers. Even though they have carefully observed the behavior they haven’t been able to pinpoint why this process is so different than what it is for other animals.
Yet their small size often makes them very easy prey for a variety of predators. As a result there is a very high mortality rate for the young Lizards. Even so there are often large numbers of eggs deposited or live young that there will be a few that survive. At this point in time Lizard species aren’t seen as being in jeopardy of diminished numbers overall.
