Publication date: 12th June 2025

In this latest blog ARC’s Conservation Director, Jim Foster, reflects on efforts to recover one of Europe’s rarest lizards

The scene couldn’t have been more perfect. A box of lemons, labelled with the invitation “Take away/Portare”, perched at the edge of an alleyway leading down to the invitingly azure Tyrrhenian Sea. I’ve often thought the phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is helpful in nature conservation – making a virtue of an obstacle. And here was life (or more accurately, LIFE) literally giving me lemons. Sicilian lemons, no less.

Fittingly, I stumbled across this citrus offering during a workshop exploring the plight of the Aeolian wall lizard Podarcis raffonei. If ever there was an animal that might have metaphorically been handed lemons, it’s this unfortunate creature, often deemed the rarest lizard in Europe. It is now restricted to just four tiny habitat patches on islets and islands in the Aeolian archipelago off the north coast of Sicily. Once more widespread, the Aeolian wall lizard has literally lost ground as the volcanic islands it calls home slump into the sea. It has also lost habitat to development, unfavourable land management, and introduced rats. Recently, researchers have been astounded at the devastating impact of Italian wall lizards Podarcis siculus, introduced from elsewhere in Italy. The Aeolian wall lizard’s total global range could fit within two football pitches. It is deemed Critically Endangered, meaning that it’s likely to go extinct without rapid action.

In early June 2025, I was privileged to be invited to a workshop hosted by the EOLIZARD project, an initiative aimed at providing that urgently needed recovery action, funded by the EU LIFE programme. The workshop discussed the challenges faced by the Aeolian wall lizard, focusing on the harm caused by invasive lizards. I was delighted to be among lizard lovers from across Europe (and one from the USA), discussing approaches to prevent and respond to risks posed by invasive lizards.

For it turns out that other lizard introductions are causing havoc too. When introduced outside their native range, species sometimes have worrying effects on local fauna, and it’s not just other lizards that are implicated or impacted. We also discussed introduced snakes, perhaps the most dramatic example being the California kingsnake Lampropeltis californiae on Gran Canaria. That snake has had a catastrophic effect on three lizard species that are endemic to Gran Canaria (i.e. they’re found nowhere else). In Germany, we heard that western whip snakes Hierophis viridiflavus introduced from Italy seem to have dented populations of native reptiles.

I gave an overview of issues with introduced lizards in the UK. Whilst not as obviously disastrous as the case studies from elsewhere, I highlighted emerging evidence that the introduced common wall lizard Podarcis muralis may be harming native common and sand lizard populations. Comments from those working elsewhere in Europe reinforced the need to avoid complacency about introduced populations of this and similar lizards.

In the EOLIZARD project, encouraging steps to help Aeolian wall lizards are well underway. Habitat is being improved, including via rat removal. Introduced Italian wall lizards are being removed from two islets where the rarer lizard is absent, and relocated where they can’t cause harm; these islets will then act as sanctuaries to receive captive bred Aeolian wall lizards in future. Population monitoring and genetic studies are informing how best to manage populations to ensure it has a fighting chance. Public engagement aims to increase awareness of this very special lizard.

I had the unforgettable experience of swimming to one of the islets where an estimated 400 Aeolian wall lizards remain. Clambering around the volcanic substrate, it was strangely poignant to observe these lizards in their rocky enclave, once part of a volcano now mostly lost to the sea. How vulnerable the species is, I mused, when a stronghold can be as small as this.

On the way home I reflected on key discussion points from the workshop, and the implications for our work back in the UK. For a start, we should make more efforts to prevent introductions of non-native species – both accidental and deliberate, herps and non-herps. My sense is that there is an unusual complacency in the UK herp conservation sector about some introduced species. Yet the global evidence for unwelcome impacts is growing, and rather than take the risk that an introduced species might not turn out to be invasive (not all are), surely we should heed the advice from invasive species specialists and try to avoid new populations establishing. Prevention is far preferable to cure. As our climate changes, we should examine whether the UK might in fact host a different mix of species, but that should not be a pretext for risky introductions.

As for the Aeolian wall lizard, I left Italy knowing that the animal’s future is in the right hands. The EOLIZARD team is exceptionally knowledgeable and dedicated. The concrete actions in train have already improved the prospects for this unlucky lizard. If life has handed it lemons, its resilience gained through evolutionary history and its committed human allies will prove invaluable in the coming years.

I’d like to thank the LIFE EOLIZARD project staff and partners for organising an excellent workshop, and the EU LIFE project for funding ARC’s participation.

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Banner image/image 1: Lemons in an alleyway on Salina island. Photo: Jim Foster/ARC

Images from top to bottom:

The Aeolian wall lizard, one of Europe’s rarest animals, photographed on a tiny islet off Salina. Photo: Jim Foster/ARC

Introduced Italian wall lizards being relocated, to create a competitor-free island sanctuary for the rarer Aeolian wall lizard. Photo: Jim Foster/ARC

A captive breeding facility established by the LIFE EOLIZARD project. Photo: Jim Foster/ARC

An islet where around 400 Aeolian wall lizards cling on. Photo: Jim Foster/ARC