My 2nd Favorite Pet of The High Desert!

The Horned Lizard!

Not a "Horny Toad"... that is what you call a male toad in spring time ;)

As many of you know if you have been following my previous posts, I love the outdoors and I love animals. On my recent adventure in Northern Arizona I found a few new friends along the way. A couple days ago I introduced you to my favorite; the garter snake. The horned lizard is just a notch below in terms of endearment but only because it is not quite as exciting to watch eat. It is a lot more calm and a lot easier to catch!

The horned lizard is a truly unique animal. It can squirt blood from his eyes and obtains adequate hydration by eating ants... yes you read that right, it hydrates itself by eating ants. It would be nice if we could do that as well if we ever got lost out in the desert eh?! :)

Introduction:

There are several different kinds of horned lizards in the Southwest United States... up to 12 to be exact. Some species are even protected so make sure you know which kind it is before you catch one and bring it home. The one I am going to talk about today is the Regal Horned Lizard found in Mexico and the Southwestern tip of the United States.

The regal horned lizard is a small to medium sized lizard, ranging from about 3-5 inches from snout to tail as a full grown adult. It can easily fit in the palm of a man's hand. Some distinguishing characteristics:

• It can squirt blood from his eyes as a natural defense
• Regulates body temperature by receiving sunlight through its head
• Diet consists of 90% ants
• Not many natural predators because of the spines on its back and ability to camouflage
• It is grey, tan, or reddish brown in color with dark spots on its body and back
• Doesn't drink water from a pond, receives hydration from its food and by funneling the water that lands on its back (rain water) to the corners of its mouth.

Habitat:

The horned lizard can be found across most deserts in the Southwest with some of the species living in the higher elevations as well. Their habitat can range from about 2,000 feet above sea level to 11,000 feet above sea level. The regal horned lizard lives mostly in the desert regions at the lower end of the elevations spectrum.

The regal horned lizard primarily likes flat or gently sloping terrain with desert vegetation spaced out providing open areas to roam. It tends to be found on limestone and other small rocky surfaces. The Sonoran Desert Mountains of Arizona make up his ideal habitat.

We caught the one shown in the pictures a couple hundred yards from this river here. Don't mind us gold panning... that is a post for another day ;)

Diet:

As you can tell, this one is very well fed! :)

Regal horned lizards eat mostly harvester ants. As mentioned above, ants make up over 90% of their diet. They can eat an astounding 2,000 ants in one sitting. They have also been known to eat:

•  flies
• beetles
• crickets
• worms
• moths
• caterpillars
• other kinds of ants

They also eat a wide variety of other small insects that they may find. In general they are slow eaters and use their sticky tongue to catch prey instead of picking it up with their jaws. 

The reason that ants make up so much of their diet is because they obtain most of their hydration from them as well. A chemical process takes places inside their stomach when consuming ants that breaks down the ant and the byproduct released provides hydration for the lizard. This provides the lizard with a significant amount of their hydration, the only other coming from rain drops that fall on his back. That is why they can live in the middle of the desert far away from water sources. 

Behavior:

In Arizona, regal horned lizards are generally active year round. They may hibernate during some of the colder months from November to February but often wake up during the unseasonably warm days. During this time he will bury himself in the sand/dirt with only his head sticking out. The sunlight heats blood inside the lizard's head located in a specialized chamber. As the blood becomes warm enough, a valve opens and releases the blood allowing it to circulate throughout the body, warming him enough to move around.

Some species of horned lizards are able to squirt blood from their eyes when they feel threatened. The regal horned lizard is supposedly one such species, but in all my years of catching them I have never seen it first hand. The blood is aimed for the attacking predators eyes and mouth. The blood can be shot about 4-5 feet and has a distinctly foul taste. It is not entirely understood why or how the lizards are able to do this but the blood is projected from a pore in the lower eye lid.

Horned lizards will also use camouflage, playing dead, and expanding their stomachs as other self defense tactics. When the lizard feels threatened it will often gulp air, inflating its belly several times larger than normal, making him appear a lot bigger to potential prey and hopefully harder to eat. The horns that line its body and head can also be a deterrent to would-be predators. 

In Captivity:

Horned lizards in general are very difficult to keep in captivity. They tend to eat a large number of ants, require a large area to roam, and are not very hardy. Regal horned lizards do better than most but still are not the easiest to care for. Only a very experienced herpetologist should keep one as a pet. Also, if you do plan to keep one that you catch, make sure you check with the local laws as some species of horned lizards are endangered and prohibited from being taken as pets. In Arizona, the regal horned lizard is not one of these protected species. If you do plan on keeping one as a pet make sure you read everything you can find on them beforehand to give you the best chance of success. 

In general, horned lizards are very slow runners and do great with people and little kids. They do not bite and will just sit on your lap and watch a movie with you like shown in the picture above. I have even had one eat a mealworm right out of my hand. They are the only reptile I have ever had do that. They make great pets if they can be properly cared for. 

I hope you were able to learn some new things about a truly unique and one of my favorite reptiles of the Southwest!

Live well my friends!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regal_horned_lizard

All images used in this post are my own, feel free to use them!

Follow: @jrcornel