Survival of the Sand Lizard (Lacerta Agilis Linnaeus, 1758) (Sauria, Lacertidae) in Relation to Habitat Quality and Heterogeneity

Lizards are important in the biocoenoses of a wide range of habitat types and are politically accepted target species for environmental impact assessments. They play an important part in food chains and are involved in the dynamics of microhabitats (Martens et al. in press). In some states of Germany, the sand lizard became endangered (Heusinger et al. 1992). A decline of the sand lizard, which results mainly from anthropogenic habitat alterations (Blab & Novak 1989), is also reported from England (Corbett 1988), Sweden (Andren et al. 1988), and other countries (Honegger 1981). Despite a large number of descriptive studies on habitat requirements, quantitative habitat models are lacking. This study analyses the significance of habitat quality and heterogeneity for the survival of sand lizards in fragmented landscapes and presents a habitat model to link local demographic data to the landscape level for environmental planning purposes.