Lizard at Canyonlands NP (Utah)
Canyonlands National Park. This cute critter was skittering about, so I caught it. There’s not much to say about it, except that there’s not much to say about it.
(This lizard is a Western Fence Lizard. They can grow to be eight inches long. There are 11 species of lizards at Canyonlands, including the northern whiptail, the desert spiny, and the western collared lizard.
You know everyone thinks it’s no big deal when lizards lose their tails? Well, they’re wrong. [And I was too until a few minutes ago.] Since lizards don’t sweat or pant, they cannot endure extreme heat without shade, or low temperatures. When it’s super cold, they go into a inactive torpor, and the food stored as fat in their tail gives them what they need to survive, so losing their tail could be life-threatening. [I’ll try not to catch lizards in the cold from now on.])
