Reptiles at Risk

Short-Horned Lizard!

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 20, 2006 at 10:00 PM

On Tuesday, we had a rare day off! No programs at all! Of course, that doesn't mean there's nothing to do- it just gave us some time to catch up a bit on blog entries, photo editing, clean and reorganize the van (much needed!), and things like that. We also went out on a hike in the park, and managed to find another species we were hoping to see- a Greater Short-Horned Lizard!

These little lizards (photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/220756410/) are found only in extreme southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta. Grasslands National Park protects some significant habitat for them; one of the main objectives of Parks Canada is to preserve space for species at risk, and Grasslands is certainly well on its way to achieving this goal! It was really interesting for us to see this species, as we have never seen them before, even in captivity. All of the horned lizards are notoriously difficult to maintain in captivity for long periods of time, as they often only eat ants! That is why we have been using a poster at our programs to show people what they look like, which is a reasonable substitute in this case!