A quick video of the larger Phrynosoma douglassi.
Tag Archives: Herps
Short horned lizard
We discovered a few Short Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma douglassi, on Mormon Mountian south of Flagstaff, Arizona (my best guess at the identification) while hiking around.
Many Phrynosoma are capable of squirting blood from their eyes—a defensive mechanism that deters predators, such as small dogs and cats, from killing the lizards in a substantial percentage of encounters, according to a discussion with George Middendorf I had after meeting him in a diversity workshop at Las Cruces Biological Station. George has quantitatively characterized and reviewed the gruesome squirting!
While I didn’t get a chance to observe the squirting, and I didn’t provoke the animals with that purpose, they also flatten out quite a bit when handled!
Mating Green Anoles
A pair of green anoles, Anolis carolinensis, mating on the fence outside of my home.
Craugastor underwoodi
A common rain frog throughout much of the mid-elevations in Costa Rica, Craugastor underwoodi is abundant in Las Cruces.
Lithobates tadpole
A Lithobates (Rana) sp. tadpole at Rainbow Springs State Park, Florida.
Black Rat Snake
On the Appalachian Trail, we came across a sunning black rat snake Pantherophis obsoletus. Amos and Kona, Mike’s dog, were oblivious to the snake presence until we disturbed the snake.
Another Pug-nosed Anole
The first Norops capito I posted about was in 2010. Here’s another, found on my birthday of this year (2016) and caught by Bree, a NAPIRE mentor:
Releasing stream anoles
Two of the mentors for NAPIRE have students working on projects centered around the stream anole, Norops aquaticus. After their capture, the males are often brought back to the field station to mark and perform various behavioral assays with them. They are released, unharmed but often exhausted, at the same site they are capture a couple of days later.
Blunt-headed vine snake
Imantodes cenchoa from Las Cruces Biological Station, and another in the same genus from La Selva.
More Emerald Glass Frogs
Centrolenella prosoblepon