Amphibians and Reptiles

Italian Wall Lizard

Menorca has 13 species of reptiles and amphibians. An excellent report of a field trip to Menorca by an expert in hepatology can be found in the
 The European Ampibia and Reptile blog
field trip report. This report has a lot of interesting stuff and much of the info in this blog is derived from it. I advise you to read Matt Wilson original account.

 The specied found on Menorca are

• Green toad (Bufo viridis ssp balearicus)
• Stripeless tree frog (Hyla meridionalis)
• Hermanns tortoise (Testudo hermanni)
• European pond terrapin (Emys orbicularis)
• American red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta)
• Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus)
• Moroccan rock lizard (Scelaris perspicillata)
• Lilfords wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi ssp addaiae)
• Turkish gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus, incl ssp spinalis)
• Moorish gecko (Tarentola mauritanica)
• Viperine snake (Natrix maura)
• Ladder snake (Rhinechis scalaris)
• Algerian false smooth snake (Macroprotodon cucullatus)

I have been to Menorca on half a dozen occasions and have so far seen: the Stripless tree frog; Hermanns tortoise; Italian wall lizard; Turkish gecko; Moorish gecko; European pond terrapin; and a couple of unidentified snakes. All these are quite common and should be seen on any visit.

Italian Wall Lizard at Cala Alcafar

The commonest is the Italian Wall Lizard, the common lizard you see all over the island.  As the name suggests they are often found on walls,  sunning themselves. I have found the best time to get close to them is just as they are comming out in the morning to warm thenselves up. At this time of day they are a but more sluggish and you can get quite close.

Stripeless Tree Frog

The Stripless Tree Frog which is found in Menorca is  Hyla meridionalis whilst the Common Tree Frog found in much of Europe is Hyla arborea.  Hyla arborea is a frog that has a prominent lateral stripe running from its snout through its eye to its rear end. The Stripeless Tree Frog has a short strip running from the eye to the front legs. However in Menorca whilst some specimens do not have a lateral stripe as the name suggests, some, as in the picture above, have a prominent stripe. If you are in Menorca  you are looking at  Hyla meridionalis - the Stripeless Tree Frog. This frog was found by the road to Cala Tirant, at the so called tirant wetlands. On this occasion they were wet, but on most visits have been dry. By moving some rocks we also saw a couple of snakes but we did not get a good enough look to tell what species they were.