Above: The old resting location for Old Rip, a renowned horned lizard, which will be now housed in a display situation within the courthouse in Eastland, Texas. Appropriate: Eastland County Judge Rex areas holds Old Rip inside the velvet-lined casket. (Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer)
The resting that is old for Old Rip, a renowned horned lizard, which will be now housed in a display instance in the courthouse in Eastland, Texas. (Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer)
These people were when so populous, the lizards had been backyard favorites over the state. Docile and slow, they certainly were an easy task to catch and created for fun summertime animals. Some Texans remember maintaining the lizards in a shoebox beneath the sleep. Others keep in mind holding pillowcases saturated in lizards to trade at Boy Scout jamborees.
Then, gradually and inexplicably, they started initially to vanish.
Fire ants, the insidious South American invaders that destroy lawns and pack painful venomous bites, will be the many oft-cited perpetrators. They’ve decimated populations of harvester ants, the main diet for the Texas horned lizard. Additionally they destroy lizard nests and consume hatchlings.
Individual disturbance arms a few of the blame also. Urban sprawl plus the spread of pesticides truly harmed the lizard’s prospects that are horned.
Because of the full time scientists noticed the lizard that is horned vanishing, it had been very nearly far too late. Now, you’re not likely to get a solitary lizard in the wild east of this Interstate 35 corridor. You’re almost certainly going to see them in south and far west Texas.
Horned lizard observations
The iNaturalist.org that is internet site crowdsources the observation of varied types in the great outdoors. Below is a map of unconfirmed, public-submitted sightings of horned lizards in Texas by iNaturalist contributors: