Field Herper.com

Field notes and photography by Bryan D. Hughes
Nov
11th
2014

Lizards from Northern Arizona

Here are a few lizards Kelly and I saw while searching for Hopi Rattlesnakes just above the rim in Cental Arizona.

This first is an extremely colorful male Eastern Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris. This was easily the most colorful collared lizard I have seen in my limited experience with them.

Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard

Another we saw crawling around here and there are these colorful Pai Striped Whiptails, Aspidoscelis pai. Although very common and easy to see, I really haven’t done much exploring this far North in the state. We saw a few and they did the typical whiptail thing of teasing and dodging between the shrubs before I finally got a halfway decent shot. I’ll be back up there sometime soon to get something proper.

Pai Striped Whiptail
Pai Striped Whiptail

Here’s a common lizard I see all the time in the Bradshaw mountains further to the South, a Plateau Fence Lizard, Sceloporus tristichus.

Plateau Fence Lizard
Plateau Fence Lizard

The last lizard we found of note was an even more colorful adult male Eastern Collared Lizard. He stood still for us and we were able to get within 7 or 8 feet before it darted between the rocks and we retreated to the truck to avoid an incoming storm.

Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard


 

Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard

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