# Help identify a lizard?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 6, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614 "2007-08-06T13:12:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614/1 "2007-08-06T13:12:48Z")

</div>

I live in Denver. Last night we had a lot of rain. I went to open my basement window and I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I have this lizard/salamander looking thing in my window well. It’s about 7 or 8 inches long (about 1/2 that is tail). It is bright yellow and black stripes. The stripes go around it’s body, not up and down.

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614/2 "2007-08-06T13:25:27Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Fugazi]  
I live in Denver. Last night we had a lot of rain. I went to open my basement window and I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I have this lizard/salamander looking thing in my window well. It’s about 7 or 8 inches long (about 1/2 that is tail). It is bright yellow and black stripes. The stripes go around it’s body, not up and down.

Any ideas?  
[/QUOTE]

Was it a [fire salamander](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fire+salamander&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi) ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614/3 "2007-08-06T13:32:11Z")

</div>

Very close, but those were more spotted. I’m not sure if the fire salamander comes in a more striped variety. The colors are right though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614/4 "2007-08-06T15:08:28Z")

</div>

How about [Tiger Salamander](http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=tiger+salamander) ?

[/nitpick] salamanders are not lizards [/nitpick]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-a-lizard/414614/5 "2007-08-06T15:37:09Z")

</div>

I’ve found tiger salamanders wandering around parking lots north of Denver, so they are around and fairly mobile. They weren’t as vividly colored as those in **CannyDan** ’s link, but tiger salamander would be my first guess.