ibiza
Lizards or snakes? The stark game of survival playing out in Ibiza
Dean Gallagher
problematic: Ibiza wall lizard is facing an existential threat
description: After 6m years of isolated evolution, the Ibiza wall lizard, whose scaly finery runs from cobalt blue to acid green, is facing an existential threat summed up in the Catalan phrase sargantanes o serps: lizards or snakes. Over the past two decades, the wall lizards have completely disappeared from some areas of Ibiza and the neighbouring island of Formentera thanks to the rapid proliferation of invasive, non-venomous horseshoe whipsnakes and ladder snakes.