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rurprider
Trad climber
Mt. Rubidoux
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:00pm PT
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Way TOO many people buy snakes and lizards for the wrong reasons. A little homework would go a loooonnnng way to matching the right snake or lizard to the right home. Hmm... sexual dimorphism ... now there's an interesting subject that's a long way from our rockclimbing obsession.
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TYeary
Social climber
State of decay
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:24pm PT
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I've had my Calif. King for 23+ years now.
Caught him in my sisters front yard as a hatchling.
I also have a female, whom Ive had for close to 16 years now, also wild caught down near Brown's Field east of San Diego.
They couldn't be more different in temperament. My male, Max, has been to more show and tells over the years than I remember. Even eats on cue to the squeals and delight of the kids. Never offered to bite even though he's passed around like a joint at Woodstock.
The female, on the other hand is cranky and doesn't like to be held. After all these years she still flies into her hide box when I enter the room.
Max is like a dog. He will follow me around the room, curl up on the bed and just hang out. He doesn't see so well anymore and he's gett'in up there in years, but my grown kids love him as if he were a dog!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:27pm PT
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Yeah, I'll drink to sexual dimorphism.
Its better than relying on parthenogenesis like some of the Cmenidophorus.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:42pm PT
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OK! South Idaho Lizards for this thread.
I love the posts, but Minerals has "best of show."
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:49pm PT
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One of the BEST EVER reptiles back in Arkansas wasn't a lizard.
T'was a snake.Sorry 'bout the drift.
Hognose snakes are great fun. I like how they will play dead, when you harass them. And EVERYONE knows that a "dead" snake has to lay on its back. Turn them over, & they will roll BACK over on their back. A couple times, anyway.
I am easily entertained. Yes, I know it's obvious. Cheers!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:53pm PT
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All this lizard talk inspired me to give another try to allowing Ozzy a conjugal visit to Pam and Felicity's crib.
It was the usual disaster.
For a huge male he isn't very smooth.
First he acts terrified. Then he realizes they won't attack him. Then he gets excited (shakes his tail tip sounding like a rattler). Then he moves in on the smallest, Felicity, not knowing that she bosses Pam. She pushes him away with her head so he clamps onto her tail hard. Then I pull him off by the tail (the only time I do that).
Visit over!
He's such a handsome guy; it really pisses me off that he is domestic abuser.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:55pm PT
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Here's another S. Idaho Lizard. Certain areas have a lot of them------but they do blend in.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Dec 18, 2010 - 09:57pm PT
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The blue skinks are also native to S Cal and will get up to around six or eight inches long.
I've got one living in my front planter now that's about five inches or so.
He's been living there for about three years now at least.
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Dec 18, 2010 - 10:01pm PT
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Maybe snake chicks like when he bites their tail? Sensibilities differ with species, I would think.
Just listen to cats sometimes. It sounds like pure death out there. Yeesh!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 18, 2010 - 10:04pm PT
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If you are talking about the geckos, she did NOT like it.
Fritz, that looks like a douglassii (short-horned).
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 18, 2010 - 10:17pm PT
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Ron: Bingo! Here is a link to Idaho State U's list of Idaho lizards.
http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/reptile/main/repfram.htm
And here is the poop on douglassii. Amazing that they have been found in Canada and at 9000 feet.
Phrynosoma douglassii
(Short-horned Lizard)
Key Characteristics
Flattened, rounded body
Horns on head and spines on body
Short horns (not longer than
they are wide at the base)
Viviparous (live-bearing)
General Description:
With their flattened and squat bodies, numerous spikes and horns on their heads, Short-horned Lizards are easily recognized as "horny toads" or horned lizards. In fact, their Latin name Phrynosoma is translated as "toad body". Short-horned Lizards range in color from pale gray with few markings, to a darker gray, tan, or reddish-brown ground color with two rows of darker blotches. The ground color will often be similar to the local substrate coloration. Ventrally, they are white or cream colored and they generally lack dark speckling. Short-horned Lizards have numerous small horn-like scales on their dorsum and a readily apparent single row of spine-like scales along their sides. The horns on the head of Short-horned Lizards are, as the common name implies, short, being no longer than they are wide at the base (Nussbaum et al. 1983). This feature helps distinguish Short-horned Lizards from the other species of horned lizard found in Idaho, the Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos), which has much longer horns.
Short-horned Lizards are small to medium sized lizards depending on the subspecies, (i.e. the Pigmy Short-horned Lizard and the Salt Lake Short-horned Lizard respectively), (Nussbaum et al. 1983). They may attain sizes of around 66 mm snout-vent length (2.6 in.) and 100 mm total length (3.9 in.), (Storm and Leonard 1995).
The reproductive characteristics of Short-horned Lizards are another distinguishing feature that separates them from the congener, the Desert Horned Lizard. Short-horned Lizards are viviparous, giving birth to anywhere from 3 to 36 young (Stebbins 1985), but the maximum litter size in the Pacific Northwest is 15 (Storm and Leonard 1995). Desert Horned Lizards on the other hand are oviparous (egg-laying). Newborn Short-horned Lizards are very small, around 22 mm snout-vent length (Nussbaum et al. 1983) and resemble the adults.
Habitat:
Short-horned Lizards are found in a variety of habitats including open pin
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Dec 18, 2010 - 10:28pm PT
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“Actually took these photos in Red Rocks, Nevada on my way up to climb Triassic Sands.”
Ah, yes… That other sandstone area in southern Nevada. I was thinking that Valley of Fire would be a cool place to photograph.
OK, so…
Alligator lizard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Alligator_Lizard
Great Basin Whiptail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnemidophorus
Zebra-tailed lizard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisaurus_draconoides
Cool! Makes sense. I went out to my truck to get my Sierra Nevada field guide. Great Basin Whiptail looks right and it has the dark spot behind the eye. The one in my photo looks like it lost its tail and is in the process of growing it back. Correct? Rokrover’s photo looks like it is also of a Whiptail.
Thanks Ron and TYeary!
Interesting and informative thread!
Thanks, Reilly and Fritz! With all of the time I’ve spent out there, it’s tough to ignore these neat creatures when they like to plop themselves on what I am looking at in the first place… Rocks! I was intending to start a reptile thread in the past to post some of those photos, but never got around to it. Thanks, Prezwoodz!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 18, 2010 - 10:37pm PT
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Yeah Fritz, Canuckistan isn't exactly known for reptiles but the ranges of painted turtles and garter snakes, among others, covers the entire length of the border.
The Planet Earth series had some remarkable stuff on the garter snake mating balls.
The males that pretend to be female in order to steal heat from other males in order to mate.
Nature is amazing.
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Dec 19, 2010 - 12:08am PT
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I think the LEB may be a lizard. from the Ark on the Moon.
Edit 4 Fritz......Word, mon.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 19, 2010 - 12:25am PT
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Skully------re "it"!
"It" is not described in "Lizards of the West."
I've never been as offended, or bored with western lizard watching:------as I have while viewing "it" threads.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 19, 2010 - 12:28am PT
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Not sure which has the most toxic venom, but I bet it is Australian (think Land Of The Reptiles).
I think in Africa the Gaboon viper is hottest, but the Black mamba kills more people due to aggressive behavior.
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wildone
climber
Troy, MT
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Dec 19, 2010 - 05:23am PT
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Here's some real interesting stuff on the Western Fence Lizard that my girlfriend told me about. from http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/herps/scel-occ.html
"Western Fence Lizards may reduce the incidence of Lyme Disease in their range! It has recently been discovered that when infected ticks feed on the blood of these lizards, the Lyme disease spirochetes they carry are destroyed. In areas with Western Fence Lizards, about 5 percent of ticks carry the disease, while in other areas 50 percent of ticks harbor the disease.
—Reported by the NY Times News Service, April 19, 1998."
When I was a kid in N. Central Texas, I used to catch the Horned Lizards "Horny Toads" as they were known to us little mouth breathers, and drop them in a bucket of water. They would puff up with air like a balloon and float on top. Then, they'd burst poisonous blood vessels in their eyes and shoot them at our faces. I guess if it gets in your eyes it really burns. But, if you don't antagonize them, they're pretty mellow.
Those alligator lizards...man, don't let one latch on you, they WILL NOT let go. No matter what kind of screaming flip-out you pull, they just clamp down harder. Mean little suckers.
Here's a little fun fact with the blue bellies, and the skinks. If you hold them up in front of a bright light or the sun, you can see directly through their head via their ears! Clean through.
And if you rub them under their jaw on their neck, they'll go to sleep in your hand, even scared ones you just picked up.
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Tobia
Social climber
GA
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Dec 19, 2010 - 08:50am PT
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Bes1'st:
I adopted my snake from a teacher who decided she didn't want it after only having it a couple of months. She was so small I would put her in my pocket and teach class all day.
She has been held by and played with more than a 1000 kids ranging from Pre-k to 8th grade. She has never made an aggressive move towards anyone or anything (except mice).
She used to sit on my wife's cello while she played for hours; she must have really enjoyed the vibrations from the strings.
Ball Pythons don't get as large as the other pythons, rarely anymore than 5-6 feet. They are known for their longevity, one captive lived to be 42 yrs old.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Dec 19, 2010 - 09:56am PT
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in the interest of herpetological propriety, i must query:
I never saw a pink one before 95, they were always black and yellow with no venom lack.
Further south is the reticulate phase.
you fellers talkin' 'bout the mexican beaded there?
i love the latin names for these puppies:
Heloderma horridum horridum
Heloderma horridum exasperatum
Heloderma suspectum
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wildone
climber
Troy, MT
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Dec 19, 2010 - 10:04am PT
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They don't have an anal vent. They sh#t out of their mouths. I am not kidding.
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