A day in the life of a lizard

01 hours- At night when the air is cold, the body of the lizard cools down. The lizard sleeps in its hole.

08 hours - The sun rises and during the morning the air warms up. Eventually, the sleepy lizard crawls out of its hole into the sunlight. The lizard will find a piece of rock or sandy ground which is exposed to the sun and it will lie there. In this way the lizard warms its body up above the air temperature. This is called basking.

10 hours - The lizard is quite active now, hunting for food and defending its territory.

12 hours - The temperature in full sunlight can reach 40°C or 50°C in tropical regions. This could be dangerous for the lizard; it could become too hot. The lizard retreats to its hole to find some shade.

17 hours - The Sun's heat cools down so the lizard can come out of its hole to hunt again

21 hours - The sun goes down and night falls. Gradually the air becomes colder and the lizard returns to its hole to sleep.

In this way the lizard has kept its body temperature constant right through the day. Only at night does the lizard's body become too cold to remain active.