Hello, this isWild Suzhou.

Today, we willtalk about side-blotched lizards, a group of lizards that are unique because oftheir mating habits.

The side-blotchedlizard looks like an ordinary lizard. They are mainly dull browns and greys,with some white spots or stripes running down their backs. They don’t look veryinteresting, but as I said earlier, it’s their mating habits that have madethem famous. The males come in three types. Some have orange throats, some haveyellow throats, and some have blue throats. This might sound odd, but think ofhow humans can have different skin and hair colors.

Furthermore, thecolor of the side-blotched lizard’s throat also tells us how they mate. Orangemeans they are more aggressive and have larger territories with more females.Yellow lizards are not as aggressive and don’t have territories. Instead, theywill sneak into the orange lizard’s territory to mate with the females. Bluelizards have smaller territories and usually only one female, but they willteam up with other blue lizards.

This specialmating habit has given the side-blotched lizard the name of “rock paper scissorlizard” since each strategy for mating success has its positives and negatives.Orange males have larger territories with more females, which makes it moredifficult for blue males to succeed since they breed with only one female.However, yellow lizards will sneak into the territories of orange lizards andmate with females. Yellow lizards, however, can’t compete with blue lizardssince they are better at defending their territories, and other blue lizardshelp each other defend females in their territory. This creates a cycle oforange, yellow, and blue, or rock paper scissors.

In some places,scientists have noticed that some varieties of males have disappeared. Usually,the yellow lizards are the first to disappear, since they are no longer able tocompete with the orange and blue lizards. Sometimes, more than one color willdisappear. Because of this, the offspring of the side-blotched lizards in thatarea will start to change, meaning that new species of lizards might start toemerge after millions of years.

For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening, and see you next time.