Let’s appreciate the fabulous flora and fauna all around us

Nature can often presents you with surprises, like just coming face to face with a deer next to your garden, so close I could see the colour of his eyes and close enough to touch his soft nose. We had a magical moment looking at each other and then he turned and ran away, I hope he survives the hunters’ guns.

Just the other day in an effort to put a couple of lizards who had come into my house back into the garden I noticed after they had ran away that one had left me a present – his still moving tail! Nature is indeed amazing, this ability to let go of a part of them as a self-defense mechanism is also present in spiders who can abandon a leg, crabs who can drop a claw and small rodents who can shed some of their skin.

I have therefore learnt a new word – autotomy – which comes from the Greek – self and sever – self-amputation. It is all quite remarkable as in his life the lizard’s tail needs to stay firmly attached to his body it is necessary for balance, storing fat and impressing other lizards but in dangerous moments he is capable of detaching it for survival. The predator is left looking at the wriggling tail while the lizard escapes – hopefully. Many lizards are indeed capable of re-growing their tails, but they are made of cartilage and not bone and often a different colour to their bodies. It appears that the tail is a series of loosely connected segments, firm but fragile.

The re-growing of a tail can take from 6 months up to one year and losing it doesn’t seem to harm the lizard, there is no blood loss. The new tail can often be brightly coloured, once again to distract the predator, sometimes even two tails can grow back at the break point.

The lizard needs to feel in real danger to shed its tail, it is not done lightly as certainly afterwards they cannot run as fast, they are less attractive to the opposite sex and there is a loss of social standing – tails are very important in lizards’ lives!

Researchers looking at and understanding the process and mechanism that allows lizards to lose their tails have decided that it could have uses in the way prosthetics are attached, also skin grafts and bandages, we continue to learn and discover nature’s secrets.

From deer looking me in the eye to lizards joining me in my home, I don’t seem to have to go far to appreciate the fabulous flora and fauna all around me.