They are equipped with Jacobson’s organ which lays on their palate. It is a chemoreceptor that aids lizard’s nose in search of chemical compounds emitted by their prey.
Feeds mainly on rodents, although it sometimes hunts larger prey.
Its diet includes rats, moles, hamsters, voles, forest mice, but also martens, polecats, weasels and young deer, roe deer, chamois and ground-dwelling birds.
