Karnataka, India 2023
Whitaker’s Termite Hill Gecko
Category: Lizards
Common Side-blotched Lizard
These sideblotched lizards are common and found about everywhere. Even in urban Phoenix and Tucson, they can be seen running around on the maze of block walls and stucco. This one is particularly colorful, found in northern Arizona.
Greater Short Horned Lizard
A Greater Short-horned Lizard from central Arizona.
No doubt the comments will be full of “we call em horny toads as kids”. But, there’s more to it 🙂 These are lizards, rather than toads … which is a surprise to many born-and-raised Arizona residents.
There are also SEVEN distinct species of them in our state, all with their own appearance, habitat preferences, and specialized diet. So the “horny toads” you may recall playing with as kids may be entirely different than the species discussed.
And a favorite example of how confirmation bias can shape our perception of the world: another comment we always get on these posts is “used to see them all the time as a kid, not so much anymore”. While the population is in decline for some species, this is easily answered by answering this question: do you spend less time outdoors playing in the dirt as an older adult?
Gila Monster In A Burn Scar
A Gila Monster moving through a burn scar in central Arizona. Last year, fire from an illegal campfire swept through the area, fueled by invasive grasses. This one managed to survive, but shows signs of how close it came to death – the top of its head and patches on its tail are black scars.
Wildfires like this are now common, as fires, OHV use, and target shooting spark them constantly. With hotter, drier years, and increased human activity in the area, another fire is likely as soon as there’s enough regrowth to burn. The landscape in another decade will be unrecognizable, without saguaro, native trees, and erosion erasing the rocky arroyos where the only surface water was available.
If your first reaction is to deny human involvement in all of this, a better use of time would be to stop watching political messaging and start looking out your own window.
Barra, C., Fule, M., Beers, R., McGuire, L., & Youberg, A. (2025). Soil biogeochemical and hydraulic property response to wildfire across forested ecosystems of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, USA. CATENA. Elsevier.
Boyle, J. M. (2025). Spatial and temporal trends of reburns in western US forests (Undergraduate thesis, Gettysburg College). Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College.
Jiménez Morillo, N. T., Rosa Arranz, J. M., & Miller, A. Z. (2024). Soil degradation: Local solutions for a global problem. CSIC Digital Repository.
Gila Monsters Bask In The Early Spring
A pair of Gila Monsters getting some of their first sun in the early spring, a couple of years ago. They had only recently made a short walk from an overwintering den, where they had buried themselves in dirt at the base of a boulder, to this staging area. Here, at least five individuals spend time doing, basically, this, for about a month before heading out to do their mysterious Gila Monster things.
Gila Monster In The Grass
A Gila Monster takes a morning stroll through springtime ground cover in 2024. The dry conditions this year have resulted in less green on the ground, increasing surface temperatures and making the desert with even less surface moisture than before. This will be a challenging year for many animals. Fingers crossed for a decent monsoon.
Zebra-tailed Lizards of Baja California
Some of the many, many Zebra-tailed Lizards from a famous beach at the southern tip of Baja California.
Neotropical Green Anole, Guatemala in 2023
Zebra-tailed Lizard On The Beach
One of the many Zebra-tailed lizards running around a popular beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Unlike about every other situation where we were wading through beach dune sands looking for lizards and snakes, this spot had a guy with a cooler selling ice-cold cervesas. This needs to be normalized in herpetology.
Regal Horned Lizard
This Regal Horned Lizard decided that basking right in the middle of a busy road was a good idea. It wasn’t. But from the look on its face, my moving it to an anthill a short distance away was not appreciated.
