Wall Lizards & The Lazarus Family

Lazarus lizards now part of our culture

Boy smuggled first group here from Italy in 1951 and they've spread
hundreds of miles


3:37 AM, May. 23, 2011 |





About six European wall lizards, smuggled through customs in a sock by
10-year-old George Rau, arrived in Cincinnati in 1951 from northern
Italy. In the six decades since, they have spread hundreds of miles to
the north of Columbus, to Kentucky, and to Indiana where they were the
target of a three-year extermination campaign by the state. / The
Enquirer/Amie Dworecki





About six European wall lizards, smuggled through customs in a sock by
10-year-old George Rau, arrived in Cincinnati in 1951 from northern
Italy.

He released them at his family's home on Torrence Court, near the
border of Hyde Park and Columbia Tusculum, and within a few years the
6- to 10-inch reptiles were spreading throughout the neighborhood.

The lizards, with detachable, regenerating tails for thwarting would-
be predators or curious children, quickly caught the attention of
locals. They began referring to them as Lazarus lizards, due to Rau
being the stepson of famed department store operator Fred Lazarus III.

"My plan was always to release them," said Rau, of Grand Junction,
Colo. "The climate was almost exactly the same (as in northern Italy)
and I thought it would be fun to see them climbing on the rock walls
where I grew up."

In the six decades since, they have spread hundreds of miles to the
north of Columbus, to Kentucky and to Indiana - where they were the
target of a three-year extermination campaign by the state.

Herpetologists estimate the region is now home to hundreds of
thousands of the scaly creatures - so many they are considered
permanent residents by the state and have been granted protection
under Ohio law.

Biologist Ken Petren and a handful of graduate students at the
University of Cincinnati have been studying the lizards since 2007.

One of the graduate students, Ninnia Lescano, completed a genetic
study of the lizards last year that allowed them to test the veracity
of the popular origin story.

"More often than not with invasive species, even though there might be
a story of a single introduction, a genetic study is done and they
find evidence of multiple introductions," Petren said. "But it appears
that all the lizards today descended from just a few of the lizards
that (Rau) brought back with him."

Petren also has been tracking the migration of the lizards, and has
found that they have not spread gradually as might be expected but
instead in isolated pockets.

The reason for the peculiar migration pattern is their strong
preference for rocky terrain or crumbling walls on southern-facing
slopes.

"It's a very patchy environment where they can make it through the
winter," said Petren, noting that the lizards dig burrows for winter
but stay active even during the coldest months.

Petren and his students created a website - www.uc.edu/lizards - to
allow the public to report sightings of the lizards.

In addition to more than 400 reports of sightings from as far away as
Columbus, Oxford and Hillsboro, as well as several confirmed
populations in Kentucky, Petren received admissions from 15 responders
that they had intentionally transferred the lizards to new areas.

"No wonder we are not seeing a gradual spread," Petren said. "To the
public they are kind of cool. Why not have a few in your garden?"

While it is against Ohio law to capture, harm or transport wall
lizards, Petren said they are so well-established in Cincinnati that
no harm would likely come of moving them within the city.

"It's impressive how many there are," said Petren, who said they can
establish population densities in ideal habitats of up to 1,500 per
acre. "(But) they are not aggressive and they don't defend territory."

Outside the city, however, their appearance has been met with mixed
reactions.

The lizards have been established in Northern Kentucky, mainly at
sites on or near the Ohio River, for over a decade, but they do not
appear to be spreading or to be a threat to native species, said
officials from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

They also have established colonies in New York City, according to the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and on
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, according to the British Columbia
Ministry of the Environment. Here, as well, local departments do
little more than monitor their spread.

But when the lizards showed up in Indiana in 2005 at the Falls of Ohio
state park in Clarksville, a rural town along the Ohio River near
Louisville, Ky., state officials there had a much different reaction.

"We were worried it might displace some of the native species," said
Zach Walker, who was the state herpetologist at the time. "So we
decided to do a control."

Walker guesses they captured about 30 Lazarus lizards that first
summer, and about 50 to 60 over the duration of the control.

Walker estimates the eradication cost the state "between $10,000 and
$30,000," and believes it was successful.

But park manager Steve Knowles isn't so sure.

"I've had some visitors who claimed to see them, but that's
unconfirmed," Knowles said. "We had a couple reports last year, but I
haven't seen any this year."

Rau, for his part, doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

"From my perspective it's just one more wonderful little animal living
in southern Ohio that eats a lot of bugs and makes some people smile,"
Rau said. "So no regrets at all - my ecological conscience is clear."

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