Tiny Island Night Lizard No Longer Threatened Speices

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made an announcement on Friday, stating that the tiny island night lizard that was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1977 is no longer a threatened species.

The tiny lizard, which is found on the Southern California Channel Island, will be removed from the current listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The proposal for removing the species from the endangered species protection was based on the successful recovery efforts by the U.S. Navy and National Park Service.

According to the report, the island night lizards are known from three of the Channel Islands off the southern California coast - San Clemente Island, San Nicolas Island, and Santa Barbara Island and an adjacent islet (Sutil Island).

Practices such as ranching and grazing caused a great threat to the lizard population. The existence of goats and pigs on San Clemente and San Nicolas islands, and rabbits on Santa Barbara Island wiped out most of the vegetation and caused significant erosion.

In an attempt to restore their numbers, the Navy and National Park Service planned on removing the non-native species such as goats, sheep and rabbits from the islands.

The 2.6 to 4.3 inch long lizards live for about 11 to 13 years. They do not lay eggs like the other reptiles. Their color varies from pale ash gray and beige to brown and black.

They successfully managed in eradicating the feral cats from San Nicolas in 2010. According to the report, the San Clemente Island has nearly 21 million island lizards and about 15,300 are present in San Nicolas Island and 17,600 on Santa Barbara.