“She can drop her tail at will,” says aquarist James Clark, nodding toward the sleek legless lizard in Lizards and the Komodo King. “Nothing has to happen to her. If she thinks she’s under threat, she can drop it.
“And that tail will shatter into hundreds of little pieces. That’s why they’re called glass lizards.”
Some guests will question why this reptile is called a lizard at all. But her blinking eyelids, external ear openings and 2:1 tail-length-to-body-length ratio say lizard, not snake.
Amazingly, Clark notes, the glass lizard has her original tail. (Regenerated tails are often a lighter color and have an undifferentiated scale pattern.) “It’s especially amazing because she was a program animal at the Cincinnati Zoo, but with very limited hands-on contact.”
He continues, “When you handle her, you can feel something like the cracking in your back when you go to a chiropractor. When you feel that, she’s letting you know, ‘Okay, I don’t want to be handled anymore.’ ”
