By Gail Cochrane

Liberty Wildlife Volunteer

Here’s something to love about Sonoran Desert summers:  so many lizards!  More than 50 species of lizards live in Arizona. Many eat insects, and some are herbivores. Let’s take a look at some of the incredible lizards you might see around the greater Phoenix area.

The ornate tree lizard is a real urbanite, basking on walls, fences and building exteriors. The small, patterned lizard hunts a variety of insects; including those most of us don’t like… flies, ants, termites and crickets. Males are highly territorial, popping off push-ups and puffing out brightly colored throats to startle intruders.

Our pup chased a whiptail lizard into the pool the other day, and I can tell you, whiptail lizards do not swim. The poor thing gamely worked to keep her head above water while I raced for the pool scooper.  Just in time. I set the net in a sunny place where she could warm up, and soon she was on her way.   Being cold-blooded, all lizards must warm themselves with an external source, namely the sun, before getting going in the morning (or after a dunking).

Some of the whiptail species that live in Arizona are parthenogenetic, meaning they reproduce asexually.  Each female can produce viable eggs, creating a population of clones. Whiptails are vigorous predators, chasing down insects, spiders, scorpions, and beetles. These lizards can be observed communicating with each other through head bobs, push-ups, inflation of the body or throat, lunging and chasing. Many species of lizards speak in this language.

If you are silly enough to go hiking mid-day in the heat, you might see a heat-loving desert iguana. The iguana enjoys eating creosote flowers, and crawls up into the bushes to reach the delectable blossoms. The iguana also digs burrows under the creosotes, providing its own shelter and a nearby hideout in case of danger. This is most helpful for the creosote shrubs, as the burrows funnel water directly to the plant roots when it rains.

I’m thrilled to see the desert spiny lizard basking on a boulder in our front yard. If I peer too closely the lizard does a few menacing push-ups to scare me away. If that fails, desert spiny slips off the boulder and disappears, moving as fluidly as water across the gravel mulch.  We make our front yard lizard friendly by allowing shrubs to grow in their natural brushy forms, allowing leaf litter to stay on the ground, and adding a few boulders for basking.  Making a habitat for lizards provides natural pest control (we do not have a pest service) and offers food for other critters that might eat lizards, such as road runners and red-tailed hawks.