"Learn Your Lizards" Guided Tours
will resume in May, 2009
Arizona
Game and Fish Department reptile researcher Mike Sredl was our special guest
tour guide for the final "Learn Your Lizards" walk of 2008 back
on September 13. Arboretum volunteers Kurt Radamaker and also "Wild Man
Phil" Rakoci were also on hand so we could accomodate an impressive crowd
of more than 60 visitors who joined us for a closeup look at native lizards.
Tours will resume in May, 2009, and continue throughout the summer.
This past summer was a great
season for colorful Collared Lizards! Casa Grande ecologist and reptile
enthusiast "Wild Man Phil" Rakoci (seen at right in a photo
by Patsy Akers) guided the August lizard walk, and he managed to safely catch
and release the collared lizard shown here. Patsy also got the colorful closeup
below here at the Arboretum. This tour is particularly popular with kids,
so make sure to invite yours - or bring grandkids, nieces and nephews!
Hundreds
of Arizonans have attended these popular walks -- and on recent outings 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 and Ornate Tree Lizards.
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 Patsy Akers, 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
