All Angles Creatures
Squamata · LiolaemidaeEntry 11,821 of 21,572
Hajek’s lizard, Liolaemus hajeki

Reptilia · Squamata

Liolaemus hajekiNúñez, Pincheira-Donoso, Garín, 2004

Hajek’s lizard

Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.

Photograph by Darío De la Fuente, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 72 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataLiolaemidaeLiolaemus

Grows to
72mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial
Body length across Liolaemidae

Longer than only 37% of all species in Liolaemidae anyone has measured.

37% of 338 species are smaller63% larger
49.7 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest120 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 49.7 to 120 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

27 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2015
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
72mm2.75 in

max 72 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
58.5mm2.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
58.5mm2.25 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Body mass · greatestcomputed
11.86g0.42 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods (Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2008), insects (Demangel 2016)

Active
Diurnal

Pincheira-Donoso, personal communication April 2009

Where it lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial

Saxicolous and terrestrial (Demangel 2016)

Habitat
Shrubland
Biome
Montane Grasslands & Savannas
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
3500–3900m
Range size
8230km²

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Núñez, Pincheira-Donoso, Garín
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2004
Type locality
Chile

Keeping one

11.5 in × 11.5 in × 7 in(29 × 29 × 18 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2.75 in (72 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Hajek’s lizard. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 12 g, the heaviest recorded for Hajek’s lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Liolaemidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Liolaemus hajeki. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-hajeki

@misc{liolaemus_hajeki_2026,
  title  = {Liolaemus hajeki},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-hajeki}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  3. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.