The Common Lizard is widely distributed across Britain, yet there are indicators that the species is in decline. Nick Michael describes the ecology, conservation and distribution of the species, as distinguished from Britain’s other native lizards.
If you are out walking in the British countryside, the lizard that you are most likely to encounter, often just as a rustle, blur or glimpse of a tail as it dashes away from you to hide in cover, is the Common Lizard Zootoca vivipara (formerly Lacerta vivipara, before its reclassification into the monotypic genus Zootoca in 2007).