"Learn Your Lizards" Guided Tours
July 12, August 9, September 7
Desert
Spiny Lizards such as the one pictured at right can grow as big as bratwursts;
look for these and a half-dozen other common species July 12, Saturday, with
Tom Brennan, co-author of two excellent field guides to Arizona reptiles and
amphibians. Brennan and University of Arizona reptile researcher Phil Rosen
will guide a tour starting at 8:30 a.m. from our visitor center. This tour
is particularly popular with kids, so invite yours, or your grandkids, nieces
and nephews! "Lizard Walks continue
on the second Saturday of each month, and our special guest tourguide August
9 is Casa Grande ecologist and reptile
enthusiast "Wild Man Phil" Rakoci. Two final tours are offered
in September -- a "Sunday Special" lizard walk scheduled for 9:30
a.m. (please note that different tour time) September 7 and then our season
finale on September 13 back at the usual time of 8:30 a.m.
Hundreds of Arizonans have attended these
popular walks this past season -- on our most recent one we were rewarded
with a chance to see a Gila Monster, Collared Lizard, beautiful Side-blotched
Lizards (which look as though their scales are flecked with turquoise), and
numerous Western Whiptails.
Have
you ever stopped to wonder why Arizona lizards do those comical pushups to
display their "abs of azure?" Learn Your Lizard walks are a chance
to learn why. Mesa Community College Prof. Andy Baldwin is an expert on the
subject of lizards and scorpions. Participants in the guided walks this summer
will have many chances to observe unique reptile behavior and learn why lizards
have blue bellies and other Sonoran esert adaptations. Dozens of entertaining
reptiles scurry across the main trail at the Arboretum, where a variety of
species are common and many of the lizards are more accustomed to people walking
by than their cousins out in the desert.
Mornings can still be hot in September, so wear sunscreen, a wide-brimmed
hat and carry a bottle of water. Carry along binoculars for a close-up view
of reptilian colors, and a field guide to reptiles if you own one.
Visitors
will learn the meaning of the word "herpetologist" and are likely
to see a variety of "herps," and perhaps even a handsome western
diamondback rattlesnake basking quietly in the shade near the Boojum trees
in the Arboretum's Cactus Garden. Reptiles around the Arboretum trails are
more easily observed than along desert paths where their survival depends
on being wary and furtive. Just
ask Dr. Baldwin:
"Plants provide lizard
habitat, and what better place can you go to find shady forests to open cactus
deserts where all the plants are in prime condition than the Boyce Thompson
Arboretum? For great lizard diversity in a one-morning walk, you can't beat
it. In a couple of hours walking quietly around the trails, we start to observe
not only the lizards that are present, but the ways they move, sit, and the
type of habitat where you can find them. These are bits of information that
become very useful in identifying the lizard species.
"Every lizard walk offers
different species given the time of day, month of the year, the trail you
take, the weather -- your luck that day -- and who knows what else? Last Summer
our groups saw Tree Lizards, Greater Earless Lizards, Tiger Whiptails, Desert
Spiny Lizards, and even Side-Blotched Lizards. Less common are Zebra-tailed
Lizards, Collard Lizards.... and maybe even a Gila Monster. Sometimes, if
we're lucky, we will see a snake such as a coachwhip, gopher snake, or rattlesnake."
Dr.
Baldwin is on the Life Science Faculty at MCC. He earned his Ph.D. at the
University of Texas at Arlington with a study of evolutionary history of reptiles
and amphibians; his master's degree at Appalachain State University in North
Caroline with research on scorpions in west Texas and his bachelor of science
degree at University of North Carlina at Charlotte with a study of the ecology
of carnivorous pitcher plants. Dr. Baldwin's publications in herpetology range
from East Coast salamanders to Texas geckos and even cobras in South Africa.
His present ressearch is on scorpions of the Superstition range.
Do you want to see more images
of native Arizona reptiles? Check out the great website:
azreptiles.com
The impressive lizard closeup photographs on this page are used courtesy of
our Arboretum friends and photographers Gale
Racut and also Richard
Ditch. To see more of their work or inquire about copyright and reprinting,
check their websites via the links on this page.
Read more about Boyce Thompson Arboretum weekend
nature walks and EVENTS
