Leapin' lizards: reptiles on the loose

The students enjoyed this. Megan thought the skin felt beady and rough, while Marjorie thought it felt like a loose-fitting jacket. "Lizards are cool, awesome creatures," she said.

Katherine received a special thrill. "One of them sniffed me with his tongue," she said, when the tegu's forked tongue darted in and out of its mouth and brushed against her fingers.

"What do lizards eat?" asked one student.

Langerwerf told them that his wife, Hester, visits local grocery stores to collect leftover bread and vegetables, which she feeds to the animals. He said he also breeds rats, which provide live food for some of the larger lizards.

Since lizards also eat insects, Langerwerf brought along a jar containing several six-spotted cockroaches. These are two-inch-long bugs that his lizards love. He let one crawl on his hand, but it fell on the ground inches in front of the students, who were sitting on the floor throughout the presentation.

"Oops!" he said with a grin on his face as the class erupted with screams, and a brief "roach-on-the-loose" panic swept through the room.

After recapturing the giant roach, he went on to tell the class that lizards in the wild are beneficial to people, because they eat insects. He also reminded the kids that all his lizards are bred in captivity and that they should not buy animals that have been taken from the wild.

"It's not good to upset the balance of nature, and we might even contribute to the extinction of rare animals," he said.

After the visit, a teacher, Suzanne Andrews, said the class really enjoyed the hands-on experience: "This whole project gave the kids an opportunity to take a closer look at their environment. I hope they learn about lizards, what it takes for them to survive, and the role they play in our ecosystem."

• Find more information about Bert Langerwerf and his lizards at his website, www.agamainternational.com.

In the warmer parts of the United States, you may be able to find a number of lizards in your backyard. Here's how to identify some of the most common:

Anoles are identified by their pink dewlaps (or flaps of skin hanging from their throats). They can change color from green to brown and back again in just a few seconds.

Broad-headed skinks live on the ground, like most skinks, but also like to climb trees. They have dark- colored bodies with stripes. Their bright blue tails fade as they get older. Males usually have a red or orange head.

Fence lizards like to sit on fences on sunny days. They're hard to catch, as they dart away if you get too close. Males have patches of blue on their throats and bellies, while females have dark wavy lines on their backs.

Racerunners are some of the fastest lizards in the world. They have six light stripes along their brown bodies.

Glass lizards are often mistaken for snakes because they can grow to several feet long and have no legs. Few adult glass lizards still have their tails. Although lizards' lost tails usually grow back, glass lizards' tails break off very easily.

About 30 years ago, Bert Langerwerf made a scientific discovery about lizards that even herpetologists (scientists who study lizards) didn't know. His experiments showed that lizards need sunlight.

This was an important discovery for all lizards in captivity, says Randy Smith, a reptile keeper at the Birmingham (Ala.) Zoo. It showed there was a close connection between lighting and the animals' well-being.

Today, zoos and those who keep many lizards know that it's important to give these reptiles proper lighting. Indoors, that usually means using UVB (ultraviolet) fluorescent lights where the lizards live.

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