11 December 2020
One thing we don’t see in Pittsburgh are the antics of lizards. Only two lizard species occur in southwestern Pennsylvania but are rarely found, so when I saw Russ McSpadden’s tweet of two zebra-tailed lizards in the Sonoran Desert I was fascinated.
Their territorial sparring looks like cartoon dinosaurs.
Two adorable male zebra-tailed lizards engage in territorial street fighting deep in the Sonoran Desert.
— Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) December 4, 2020
?Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument pic.twitter.com/X16Z86QdOf
So who are these guys?
Zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides) are 2.5 to 4 inches long, not including their tails, and are endemic to the open desert of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.
During the breeding season, May to August, males are particularly colorful with iridescent blue and sometimes orange on their bellies. Each male defends a territory and works to attract multiple females. The more females he has the greater his social status and the more aggressively he defends his territory. Hence the threatening dance.
You can’t see much of the zebra tail in the video but these lizards use it as a social signal and predator deterrent. According to Wikipedia, “When threatened zebra-tailed lizards run quickly with their toes curled up and tails raised over their backs, exposing the stripes” as shown in the photo below.
The dominant lizard in the video must be shouting at the other guy, “Leave now! Run away! Show me your tail!”
(*) The two lizard species that occur in southwestern PA are the northern fence lizard and five-lined skink. I’ve never seen a five-line skink and have only seen a fence lizard once — in Virginia Beach.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals. embedded tweet from Russ McSpadden @PeccaryNotPig)