It's a Lizard!
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
It’s a Lizard!
Today’s special animal friend is the desert spiny lizard, Sceloporus magister. One of maybe 114 species in the Sceloporus genus, the desert spiny lizard is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They are about 5 inches long, snout-to-vent, with a tail nearly as long as the body. Their scales are “keeled,” which means angled on a center ridge, and pointed. Along with the spikes around their heads, these shield-like scales protect them from overhead predators.
As you can see, their coloration on their backs is desert camouflage, with varying shades of yellow, tan, and light and dark brown. When the weather is cooler, they can darken their color to absorb more heat; on hot days, they lighten their color or seek shelter in shady burrows or under rocks. Adult males have some blue or green coloration on their tails and blue or violet patches on the belly and throat. They flash these colors at other males in territorial displays and at females as a courtship move.
This behavior is typical of spiny lizards, including the Australian bearded dragon. Dragons also make extremely provocative arm gestures.
The desert spiny lizard is a species of Least Concern. They are adapted to a variety of desert habitats, including forest, scrubland, chaparral, and rocky hills. They are usually found near shelters such as burrows, brush piles, or pack rat nests, and they often climb trees. They breed in the summer. Clutch sizes are 8 or more eggs in the southern part of their range and fewer in the northern area, such as Utah. Females with a good diet can lay two clutches per year.
Their diet is mainly insects, including ants, beetles, and caterpillars. They also eat spiders, centipedes, and smaller lizards. Wikipedia says they “hibernate” in winter, but that’s not technically accurate. They go into shelter and lie around, except on unusually sunny and warm days. Predators include birds of prey and larger lizards.
Like bearded dragons, they have personalities, or at least, herpet-fanciers imagine they do.
Bonus material! If, like me, you didn’t actually know what “chaparral” is like, here is a nice young man explaining everything:
Good morning, everyone. I'm back from picking up Fang at the airport. He was visiting his sister in Oregon, where it rains a lot.
1st day of 2nd term classes on China campuses. Wife remarked on the very noticeable differences in kids between now and just a few years ago. Few want to talk or engage in any outward statement that might get them judged on literally anything. Everyone is comfortable online where anonymity reigns. In class, in any social setting, it's crickets chirping. Everyone just wants to get out and get a job, but when asked what that means, nobody knows. I interpret that as a manifestation of whatever it is that social media is doing to young people's minds, and the "whatever it is"...is bad.