To avoid being eaten by predators, the normally flat-bodied lizard can puff up and appear very fat, causing its body scales to protrude so the lizard cannot be easily swallowed. The lizard also ejects blood from its eyes when threatened; in courtship males rapidly bob their heads, and females nod their heads in response.
About 20 percent of reptiles in the world are endangered or vulnerable to extinction. The Center was joined in its petition for the Texas horned lizard by Dr. Steve Sheffield, a zoologist who received his Ph. In Texas and Oklahoma, the combined human population grew fivefold over the last century, to 33 million today from 6.
As cities expanded and highways stretched across the prairies, the lizards — which are not very mobile and prefer open habitats with sparse vegetation and loose soil — became isolated in smaller and smaller pockets. Native grass was replaced on a massive scale with row crops and pastures of non-native groundcover like Bermuda grass, which is great for hay production and cattle grazing but too dense for horned lizards to hunt for food.
And then came the red fire ants. The invasive South American insects were accidentally imported via cargo ship into Alabama in the s and steadily marched across the South, reaching Texas by the s. The lizards face yet another, more natural, problem: Just about anything that can eat a horny toad will eat a horny toad. Horned lizards are not fast, and try to avoid being eaten by blending in — and looking fierce. People saw them as a kid, and then they grow up and move to the city and start reminiscing.
People often call the state wildlife department, he said, claiming they have the perfect property for horned lizards to be reintroduced. Leslie Nossaman, recent president of the Austin-based Horned Lizard Conservation Society , gets those kinds of wistful calls all the time too. The Horned Lizard Conservation Society, a nonprofit that sponsors scientific research on the critters, started in In recent years, scientists and zoos have tried a new approach to bringing the reptiles back from the brink: breeding them in captivity and reintroducing them to the wild.
It has released more than hatchlings, but it is difficult to tell how many survived because they are small and well-camouflaged. On a triple-digit Tuesday in the summer, Raymond Moody marched through knee-high grass and Maximilian sunflowers, gently waving a long metal antenna — and watching for lightning in the wake of a morning thunderstorm.
Moody, a natural resources scientist at the base, and a small group of volunteers from the Oklahoma City Zoo searched for 2-inch lizards on a acre prairie reserve on the base where 56 or so horned lizards live. Adult lizards being tracked there wear transmitters that look like little backpacks, each programmed to a unique frequency.
Moody moved quickly as his receiver beeped louder and louder, picking up the signal of lizard It was moving fast — too fast for a horned lizard. Moody theorized it might have been eaten by a snake that was slithering away.
Or so they thought. They found a tag attached to a chunk of skin. The lizard had shed its skin and left the tracker behind. After about two hours, Moody found in the tall grass. Ray Moody, a natural resources biologist at Tinker, said the team has found the species needs a mix of vegetation types in its habitat. According to Moody, researchers on the base saw a Texas horned lizard squirt blood out of its eyes when it was attacked by a snake. Scientists previously theorized the lizards reserved that response for canine predators like dogs and coyotes.
Moody said with all of the new data, there are always more questions. Siler at the Sam Noble Museum said invasive ant species from Central and South America, like fire ants, are migrating north with the changing climate. There are also anecdotes of people collecting and selling the lizards as pets in the past, which is now illegal in both Texas and Oklahoma. Though KGOU listener Gabe Denton may not be seeing as many so-called horny toads, biologists are working to change that.
David Graey composed the theme music. Email your questions about Oklahoma to curious kgou. Subscribe to the How Curious podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.
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