Sometimes when you observe nature in action, you are not sure what is going on. That happened to me a few weeks ago, and as Hercule Poirot would say, “You have to put those little grey cells to work.”

I was climbing the garden steps when I saw two alligator lizards right in front of me. The steps are steep, my grandson was with me, and he was exclaiming, “snakes!” with horror and fascination. We both took another way up the slope and came back around to look at the show.

The two animals were entwined, but I was not sure what was going on.

A little knowledge sometimes is a handicap, as I knew alligator lizards are cannibals that not only eat their young but also the female and male eat each other. Was one killing the other?

When in doubt, if you use those little grey cells properly, you can make some good deductions.

Feeding oneself is a matter of survival for an animal, and if you have teeth, as an alligator lizard does, the killing should be fast so the prey does not escape. The male was holding the female by the throat. If killing were the intention, the killing would be swift. We are not talking about a slow strangulation by constriction in the case of an alligator lizard with powerful jaws.

My investigation progressed rapidly when I saw the couple was staying in the same position for a very long time. They were mating for sure. When I came inside and Googled “mating alligator lizard,” I saw countless photos of the typical mating position, the male holding the female by the throat. Not exactly the most cuddling position but very effective.

It is actually an intimidating position until the female lets the male mate with her. It shows her he is strong, a suitable mate, and the babies resulting from this union will do well in life.

The male organ of the alligator lizard is called hepipenes. It is elongated and tubular, and it is lying in the tail. It has hooks to anchor the male within the female and to make sure fertilization has occurred. The couple remains in the mating position for a long time, being quite oblivious to their surroundings.

Reproduction is one of the most important goals of any species; they need to make sure their breed will keep on living.

The mating happens during April and May, and the eggs take about 11 weeks to hatch. The female lays between five and 20 eggs in rock crevasses or depressions in the ground. The young are fully formed when they are born and are sexually mature at 18 months.

Alligator lizards live 10 to 15 years, so they are around for quite a long time. They are useful in a garden or even in a garage because they eat many insects: beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and many spiders including black widows that are often found in garages.

This is the time of the year when more people seem to notice alligator lizards. They were inactive during the cold winter months when gardeners were staying inside, compiling their seed catalogues. With the warm weather returning, the gardeners are back to their chores, cleaning up leaf litter or trimming bushes, and suddenly they find themselves in a close encounter with a creature that looks like a snake, mouth opened widely, showing teeth. If they do not remove their hand quickly enough, the alligator lizard will bite and even defecate on the predator to send a strong message.

If you didn’t get the idea and tried to grab it by the tail … they can shed their tail to escape. Most often people won’t go that far, but a cat or a hawk will. Losing a tail is energy-costly for a lizard, but the tail will keep on wiggling and distract most predators.

Alligator lizards can be found in many habitats; in very dry zones, they will be more abundant under wood piles, leaf debris or dense ground cover.

Their body is slender like a snake but they have legs and eye lids, so you know they are lizards. They have yellow eyes and a slightly forked tongue at the tip that helps them to gather airborne scents to the organ on the roof of their mouth. The tail is slightly prehensile, and it helps help them climb onto vegetation.

They swim very well in an undulating pattern like a snake, and they can be active on a cool, cloudy day when most other lizards are not. They are active during the day on cooler days and they will be more active at dusk or at dawn (crepuscular) during a hot spell.

Their bodies look different from the fence lizards you see sunning themselves on rocks in your garden. The outline of the head and the body follows in a smooth line, like it would for a snake, forcing many casual observers to take a second look.

They are usually secretive and hide in the shade under leaf litter or ground cover like ivy, and they are not very often seen in the open except at this time of the year when mating is important and they are looking for a willing mate…so this the time of the year where people have close encounters with them.

Look twice if you think you have a snake in your garage. If it has legs, it is never a snake and it might just be an alligator lizard trying to eat the black widow spiders. And in that case, you should be grateful.

Evelyne Vandersande has been a docent at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center since 1986. She lives in Newhall.