Lizard surprise for National Trust cafe staff

Lizard surprise for National Trust cafe staff

Live lizard found in bag of fresh salad at charity's cafe in Edinburgh.

Catering staff at the National Trust for Scotland’s café in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square were served up a surprise on Monday, when they discovered a live lizard in a bag of fresh salad leaves that had been imported from Israel.

The restaurant manager discovered the dazed creature in a bag of rocket salad leaves.

Conservationists at the charity identified it as a Lebanon Lizard and set up a temporary home for the creature in a converted CD holder which they placed on a computer monitor to keep the lizard - now nicknamed Rocky - warm.

The Trust’s nature conservation adviser Lindsay Mackinlay said: "It is absolutely fantastic that Rocky has survived.

"He's obviously been in transit for a number of days and would probably have been refrigerated throughout much of the journey.

"We suspect he would have survived by slowing down his metabolism and going into a state of hibernation.

"Thankfully he’s doing well and is very alert now that he has warmed up a bit."

The National Trust for Scotland are now trying to find Rocky a permanent home.