Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
Published June 5, 2026 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Documented case studies of eradication and control of invasive alien lizards

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Roma Tre University
  • 2. ROR icon Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos
  • 3. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust
  • 4. ROR icon Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
  • 5. ROR icon Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University
  • 6. ROR icon University of L'Aquila
  • 7. IUCN SSC Iguana Specialist Group
  • 8. ROR icon The University of Texas at Arlington
  • 9. ROR icon Research Institute for Nature and Forest
  • 10. ROR icon University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • 11. ROR icon Institute of Nature Conservation
  • 12. ROR icon Asociación Herpetológica Española
  • 13. ROR icon University of Wrocław
  • 14. ROR icon National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • 15. EDMO icon University of Bari
  • 16. ROR icon University of Milan
  • 17. Büro für Landschaftsökologie LAUFER
  • 18. Elmen EEIG

Contributors

  • 1. ROR icon Research Institute for Nature and Forest
  • 2. ROR icon Roma Tre University

Description

Documented case studies of eradication and control of invasive alien lizards provides the result of an expert and literature-based global review of cases of management of alien lizards. The dataset is one of the outputs of a workshop that convened global experts and practitioners directly involved in (invasive) alien lizard management, representing a wide range of geographical regions, institutional contexts, species and invasion scenarios.

This workshop, entitled “Invasive Alien Lizards – Toward a Strategy for Management, Eradication, and Containment”, was held 3-4 June 2025 in Malfa (Salina Island, Italy). It convened a select group of 42 participants including government agencies (e.g. environmental protection authorities), academic and research institutions, non-governmental organisations, and international conservation bodies. Participants engaged in focused discussions on specific aspects of invasive alien lizard management.

In addition to the workshop-generated data, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to contextualise the discussions and findings within the broader scientific understanding of herpetological invasions. Searches were carried out using the databases Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, employing the following keywords: invasive lizard, alien reptile, invasive lizard management, lizard control, lizard eradication, and alien lizard impacts.  

File description

  • alien_lizard_management.csv: dataset of case studies of eradication or control of alien lizards. Each record represents a species x year x location x measure combination.
  • alien_lizard_management.html: an interactive map showing the geographic distribution of documented cases in which invasive alien lizards were either eradicated or brought under control. When exact coordinates were not available in the original source, approximate locations were represented using the centroid of the relevant locality or country. The source code to generate this map from the data can be found in this GitHub repository.

Dataset description

The dataset alien_lizard_management.csv contains the following fields:

  • species: the scientific name of the species.
  • year: the year or period during which the measure was undertaken.
  • location: the location where the management was undertaken mentioning country and any further detail, if available.
  • lat: the latitude of the location (WGS 84).
  • lon: the longitude of the location (WGS 84).
  • measure: the management measure undertaken (control, eradication, information, monitoring, early detection and rapid eradication).
  • reference: the citation in [author, year] format.
  • reference_DOI: the DOI of the reference, if available.
  • link_reference: the link to the reference, if available.
  • notes: any further comments.

Acknowledgements

This work was co-funded by the Conservation of the Aeolian wall lizard, through translocation, reintroduction, and habitat restoration project (LIFE EOLIZARD, LIFE22-NAT-IT-LIFE-EOLIZARD/101114121), co-funded by the LIFE Program of the European Union, which aims to protect the critically endangered Aeolian lizard, endemic to the Aeolian Archipelago.

Files

alien_lizard_management.csv

Files (1.1 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:3314f91cd796a4754f068605abb4d3b7
12.1 kB Preview Download
md5:5fdea0ec5cff3b5d1c85a73392f3605f
1.1 MB Download

Additional details

Related works

Is compiled by
Software: https://github.com/inbo/alien-lizard-review (URL)

Funding

European Union
Conservation of the Aeolian wall lizard, through translocation, reintroduction, and habitat restoration LIFE22-NAT-IT-LIFE-EOLIZARD/101114121