Texas Horned Lizard Watch

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WheretoSeeHornedLizards WheretoGetHornedLizards Horned lizards have declined in many places Not so fast!! While many people ask if it’s but can still be found in many parts of South possible to get horned lizards for pets or for Texas, West Texas, the Rolling Plains and the release on their property, TPWD does not Texas Panhandle. Keep your eyes open on warm endorse either option at this time. Horned Texas Horned Lizard Watch is one of several days (80-95°F) in these areas, especially near lizards do not survive well in captivity and projects offered by Texas Nature Trackers, a harvester ant beds. You can also check out state therefore do not make good pets. Furthermore, program of Texas Parks and Wildlife that invites park destinations in the Panhandle Plains, two species of horned lizards in Texas, the “citizen scientists” to get involved in real South Texas Plains and Big Bend Country Texas horned lizard and the short-horned research to provide needed data about species travel regions. lizard, are listed as threatened by the state of concern. Other projects include Texas www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/ and require scientific permits for handling. Amphibian Watch, Texas Mussel Watch, Texas Monarch Watch, Texas Black-tailed Prairie Dog In addition, TPWD’s Chaparral and Matador Although restocking horned lizards in places Watch and several other monitoring programs. wildlife management areas conduct research on where they once occurred in the wild would To find out more about Texas Nature Trackers or their populations of horned lizards. Certain seem popular with many people, several to order monitoring materials for Texas Horned public access days may provide the opportunity problems exist, including questions about Lizard Watch, please contact TPWD’s Wildlife to glimpse a horned lizard. survival in the wild. TPWD is conducting Diversity Program at: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/wma/ research on several of these questions with the hopes of providing more options in the future. Texas Nature Trackers Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. 4200 Smith School Road horny toad Identification Austin, Texas 78744 1-800-792-1112 x8062

Or visit our Texas Nature Trackers Web site at: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/tracker/

T Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries. F I S B U B I

H TPWD receives federal assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Y

R and other federal agencies. TPWD is therefore subject to Title VI of the Civil R

E Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the T

© Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, in addition to state anti-dis - crimination laws. TPWD will comply with state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, sex or disability. If you believe that you have been discriminated against in any TPWD program, activity or event, you may contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division Offering Texans who care about of Federal Assistance, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop: MBSP-4020, Arling - ton, VA 22203, Attention: Civil Rights Coordinator for Public Access. horny toads a way to get involved Short-horned lizard Texas spiny lizard (NOT a horned lizard) in conservation research. How Can I Help? ConductHornedLizardSurveys ManageHornedLizardHabitat JoinConservationEfforts TheCaseofthe Texas Horned Lizard Watch offers a monitor - If you would like to e Horned Lizard Conservation Society is ing packet with instructions and data sheets increase the horned a nonprofit organization dedicated to the for conducting surveys for horned lizards. lizards on your prop - conservation and recovery of horned lizards. DisappearingHornyToads Whether you visit potential habitat on a daily erty or perhaps attract ey fund research and conservation efforts basis, just happen to see a horned lizard, or horned lizards in the and provide several field trips and newslet - would like to set up a transect to do quantita - future, then habitat ters each year. www.hornedlizards.org Everyone loves horny toads, but for many tive monitoring of horned lizards and their management is the Texans, the fierce-looking yet amiable reptile is habitat, there’s a way for you to participate. most important step. Horned lizards prefer open, e Fort Worth Zoo has led the way in only a fond childhood memory. Now, through Sites can be on your own property, on public native grasslands and shrublands with plenty of bare developing captive propagation techniques participation in Texas Horned Lizard Watch, land, or on someone else’s property with ground and native ants (see below). Landowners can for horned lizards and has horned lizards on you can take part in an effort to better under - their permission. Data from all sites is help create these conditions by using prescribed fire display in its Texas Wild! exhibit. Several stand why our official state reptile is doing well valuable, even if no horned lizards are found, to remove ground litter, carefully managing grazing, other zoos are in the process of getting in some locations and what factors may have because it helps us to understand habitat restoring native plant communities, actively creating involved in horned lizard research in Texas. contributed to its decline in other areas. characteristics. It’s also a great activity for some bare ground areas, avoiding use of broadcast www.fortworthzoo.com families, classrooms, and scout groups! pesticides and managing traffic on roadways. Once common throughout most of the state, www.tpwd.state.tx.us/hornedlizards/ For more publications on horned lizards and land the horny toad (or Texas horned lizard) has management, contact TPWD. disappeared from many parts of its former range over the past 30 years. Its disappearance has been blamed on many factors, including horny toad facts collection for the pet trade, spread of the red imported fire ant, changes in land use, and ere are three species of horned lizard in Texas. All Texas horned lizards feed Texas horned lizards have environmental contaminants. For the most are wide-bodied with a short tail, but you can tell them primarily on harvester ants, some amazing defenses! part, however, the decline of the Texas horned apart by the number and size of “horns” on their also called red ants (see image Its horny appearance and lizard has remained a mystery with little under - heads. Only the Texas horned lizard seems to have above). Harvester ants build coloration helps it to blend standing of the management actions that could suffered dramatic population declines. large mounds with a hole in into sparse vegetation. the center. Mounds are very Its horns may make it less be taken to restore it. visible, because the ants re - palatable. It can also inflate move the vegetation from a itself to a larger apparent Texas conservation license plates help fund As a participant in Texas Horned Lizard Watch, circular area 3 to 6 feet in di - size. Finally, the horned conservation efforts in the state. e most you will be “on the ground”— collecting data ameter. One volunteer lizard is renowned for its popular plate features a Texas horned lizard reports that one way to know ability to shoot a stream of and observations about populations of horned and provides funding for wildlife diversity lizards in your area, their food sources, their if horned lizards are active is blood from its eye (actually, to watch for harvester ants— its eyelid). Don’t mess with projects, including horned lizard research. potential predators or competitors and their TEXAS ROUNDTAIL SHORT-HORNED http://conservation-plate.org/ habitat characteristics. From young to old, 2 long horns 4 medium horns All horns short both species like it hot! horny toads! Ph.D. to hobbyist, there’s a way for everyone (80-95°F). to participate!