OK, so we’ve all heard the expression “to turn tail and run,” but to “drop tail and run?”  In the case of certain lizards this is exactly what they do. It’s called tail autotomy (discarding of body part). Some creatures spray a jet of acid to repel attackers and some use their surroundings to camouflage themselves and hide, but dropping your tail as a defensive maneuver, is in fact, a stroke of brilliance. Mind the pun.

The key to the maneuver is the distraction component. Just as with any parent trying to stop the screaming sound emitting from their child’s mouth, distraction provides the animal (and parent) with a chance at survival. While the predator is distracted with the freshly removed, wriggling appendage, the lizard has a chance to run away to freedom – less a tail.

Only some lizards are able to do this. The ability is found in lizards with fracture points within their vertebrae. As with a large number of reptilian species, these lizards will regenerate their tails again.  However the new tail will never be the same as it was before. Newly regenerated tails will generally take on obviously different characteristics. These might range anywhere from different shapes to totally different patterning from the rest of the lizard. The ability to drop their tails is a one-time offer only. The new tail will not grow back with the fracture points built in.

Normally, you would only ever see a lizard with a second tail in the wild. As it is a defensive mechanism, for it to happen while in captivity means an “attack” of sorts most likely took place. If this happened to your pet lizard then I would suggest checking the safety of your lizard’s home. In any case, the actual act itself is rather distressing to the animal, as it would be to any one of us losing a limb. Tails start to regenerate almost immediately but can take anywhere up to 2 years to fully develop. The living conditions of the lizard will largely influence the length of development.