In this article, you will know about, what lizards eat in the wild.
Lizards are one of the largest groups of reptiles to be found on the planet which have around five thousand species. Except for the Antarctica continent, these animals can be found on every other continent across the globe.
However, most of them are omnivorous so, they eat insects, fruits, vegetables, and animals. In the wild, lizards eat various things and their diets depend on their species and surrounding environment. Hence, lizards can live in all types of different locations, such as rainforests, mountains, wetlands, deserts, and even in backyards — where lizard diet depends on whatever is available there. Water is the main reason for their survival and it’s common in all species. Some of them are very tiny whereas others are larger than humans.
Lizards are fascinating animals. We usually watch this animal focus on their prey and with their tongue drag their targeted animal to eat. But, how many are you noticed that, what are they eating? Worms? Jolly Ranchers? Bugs?
Regardless of whatever the reason you are curious about lizard’s food habits, learning about what lizards eat is always both educational and fun, so keep reading on.
Insects
More than 80% of species of lizards eat insects and most of these reptiles are depending on them as their main food source. However, the rest of the lizard species eat insects as their dieting part. Which types of insects and lizards gonna eat totally depends on the location they are. The reason behind this is that they feed on whatever things are available in their surrounding area. Crickets, cockroaches, ants, grasshoppers, flies, spiders, etc — are the common insects which that lizards eat mostly. Most lizards love to eat the crickets insects.
Additionally, small lizards such as fence lizards and skinks are considered as valuable. Because these lizards help to get rid of harmful insects including roaches, mosquitoes, and termites around houses. There are a few insects (lightning bugs) that are poisonous to some specific lizards.
Plants
Lizards are omnivorous animals. So, they can eat both plants and even animals. Most lizards such as anoles, geckos, and spiny lizards feed insects to survive. But there are some other species of lizards that are vegetarian and live on eating plants.
Iguanas, chameleon tegus, bearded dragons, Chinese water dragons, etc lizards feed plants mostly. Even though they can eat every type of plant but some plants might be harmful to them.
Fruits
There are some lizards such as the omnivorous and herbivorous lizards are strict herbivores that eat fruits mostly. They can eat papaya, apples, mangos, strawberries, raspberries, etc fruits. A small number of fruits are enough for omnivorous lizards for completing their diet. In the wild, for example, the green iguanas feed on soft fruits, leaves, flowers, etc.
Flowers
There are some flowers such as geraniums, clovers, carnations, hibiscus, and dahlia that are feed by the plant-eating lizards in the wild.
Eggs
Some species of lizards steal eggs from the mammal nests for feed. For example, the Gila monster’s lizards steal eggs to feed.
Meat
Some of the species of lizards are cannibals as they eat other small lizards. In the wild, the collared lizards feed other small lizards to survive. Apart from that, lizards eat small snakes, mice, small birds, etc animals meat also.
Conclusion
With 5000 species of lizards, it’s really hard to categorize them into 1 group. But, depending on their diet it can be categorized into 4 sections such as omnivorous, carnivorous, insectivorous, and herbivorous.
In the wild, the diet of lizards mainly depends on the size, species, and available foods in their area. Thus, insects, fruits, plants, flowers, eggs, and meat are their common food in the wild.
Hope that, now you know your answer. Comment below, if have any questions.
