Lazarus Lizards Cincinnati

A defense mechanism known as autotomy.

Lazarus lizards cincinnati. The boy george rau was a scion of the well known lazarus family which for generations ran one of the largest department store chains in ohio. Local residents called them lazarus lizards in misplaced recognition of the lizards perceived patrons. His mother was arts patron irma lazarus and. George smuggled a few 6 to 10 depending on the reference source through customs to release them at his familys home on torrence court located in the eastern cincinnati suburb of hyde park.

The lizard story may ring like local folklore. In 1951 a young boy was vacationing with his family near milan italy. Of course they should have been named georges lizards in honor of their true sponsor. Podarcis muralis photographed in cincinnati ohio 2015.

However george rau wrote a letter in 1989 to herpetologists at the cincinnati museum of natural history detailing his role as the lizard leader. However if you ask a cincinnatian to identify the lizard they will most likely call it the lazarus lizard this is one of the lizards capable of detaching their tail to survive a predators attack. Rau became enchanted with the docile lizards that sunned themselves on the rocky walls around milan and so he tucked 10 of them into a sock and brought them back to cincinnati where he. The lizard got its nickname from the family that brought them to cincinnati.

Lazarus lizards are in fact podarcis muralis or. However the local common name lazarus has nothing to do with dropping a tail to rise again. The lazarus lizards originally answered to podarcis muralis the scientific name assigned to our lizards old world forebears. What are lazarus lizards.

It is referred to locally in the cincinnatinorthern kentucky area as the lazarus lizard as it was introduced to the area around 1950 by george rau a boy who was a member of the family who owned the lazarus department store chain now absorbed into macys. June 4 2019 by. They are so common in europe that theyve been dubbed the common wall. Also the cincinnati lizards have their greatest genetic diversity in the east walnut hills area now known informally by city residents as lizard hill indicating that they have been living.