Sakishima grass lizard
Amazing fact
The Sakishima grass lizard uses its very long tail to balance and support its body in trees.
多摩動物公園
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The Sakishima grass lizard uses its very long tail to balance and support its body in trees.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Sakishima grass lizard
- Scientific name
- Takydromus dorsalis
- Japanese name
- サキシマカナヘビ
- Group
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Lacertidae
- Genus
- Takydromus
A lizard found nowhere but Japan, on Ishigaki, Kuroshima, and Iriomote islands. It moves widely through the tops of low trees and grassy thickets.
Its back and sides are bright green, with a black stripe in front of and behind each eye. The scales on its back are small and round, so its back is smooth.
Undisturbed places where grassland and woods mix suit it well. It lays eggs several times from spring to summer.
How the Sakishima grass lizard lives
It eats insects, spiders and similar animals.
多摩動物公園Basic data
- Size
- Total length: 250–320 mmHead and body length: 60–70 mm
- Diet
- Insects, spiders, and other animals
- Range
- Ishigaki, Kuroshima, and Iriomote in Japan
- Conservation status in Japan
- Vulnerable (VU)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, 5th Red List (2026)
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- サキシマカナヘビ
- 简体中文
- 先岛草蜥
- 繁體中文
- 先島草蜥
- العربية
- تاكدروموس دورساليس
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 多摩動物公園 — サキシマカナヘビChecked: 2026-11-03
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, 5th Red List (2026)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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