Tags: desert horned lizard, greater earless lziard, horned lizard, horny toad, lizards, phrynosoma platyrhinos, western banded gecko
Oct
25th
2010
NOTICE All images on this website are Copyright © Bryan D. Hughes and may not be copied, downloaded, printed, or otherwise recreated without permission. If you have a request, please ask me. Violators are subject to legal action.
Site designed by Bryan D. Hughes, Zigbot Media.
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
Powered by WordPress
The Horned Lizard are an animal absolutely striking!
Which of these do you find most often? I’ve seen the platyrhinos twice, the earless lizard only once, and I’ve never seen a Coleonyx variegatus in the wild before. I find side-blotched, spiny lizards and whiptails by far the most common in my area…
Of the lizards mentioned, in order of sightings, would be side-blotched, whip-tails, earless lizards, banded geckos, & spiny lizards of various sorts.
You should be able to find a Coleonyx fairly easily by finding some trash that’s been dumped near open desert and flip it … if you can find a pile of tar shingles or some carpeting, it’s almost a sure thing.
Ok, I know it’s not very professional of me to goo over herps, but that first photo is ADORABLE.
Is this horned lizard the species that can spray blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism? Or is that only in some distant land that I’ll never get to see…
We have their much smaller cousins up here but I’ve only had the chance to see one. Very cool lizards.
PS, as usual, AWESOME PHOTOS BRYAN!!
Hmm, I actually have no idea if they all do it or not. I have been sprayed by 3 species here, and threatened with it by another (their lower eyelids bulge before the event). It’s a surprising amount of blood, more than capable of covering a camera lens and my glasses.
Here’s a photo from the last time: http://fieldherper.com/2009/06/30/ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww/
Thanks!
Hi Bryan – great photos as always. OT, but how do you get the banner at the bottom of your photos? You can email me offline if you like.
p.s. checked out “ewwwww…” – wow!
Hey Ted, thanks! The banner at the bottom is a Photoshop action I created. I could just give it to you, but it unfortunately only works for my particular aspect ratio that I shoot at. Actions in PS are just macros, where you can record actions that you can “play” on a photo to set up a template to fill in the blanks. Do you use Photoshop? I could help get it set up.