Whatever Happened To The Horned Lizard?

By K.J. Parker

Most people over the age of thirty remember playing with horned lizards, usually called horny toads, when they were young. Now however, many children have never even heard of a horned lizard much less seen one. That brings up the question, "Whatever happened to the horned lizard?" Though there are thirteen species of horned lizard, this paper will focus on the Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum (Manaster 1997).

The Texas horned lizard’s color varies from dark grayish-green to light gray depending on the environment in which it lives. It has spiky scales on its back and two rows of spikes on each side. The horned lizard likes to bask in the sun during the day and dig a hole to sleep in at night. While it will eat certain moving insects, its favorite meal is the red harvester ant. After mating, a female Texas horned lizard will dig a hole for a nest and lay up to 37 eggs. She then leaves and never returns. Only an average of two horned lizards from each nest will survive until adulthood (Manaster 1997). When a horned lizard is threatened, its first defense is to try and blend in with its surroundings. If that does not work, the horned lizard trys to escape. If it can not escape, then it will face the enemy and inflate its belly while hissing. As a last resort, the horned lizard will squirt blood from its eyelids (Manaster 1997). The Texas horned lizard is certainly one of a kind.

I have lived in Waco, Texas for four and a half years. Waco is a medium-size city located in McLennan County with a population of 113,726 (http://en.wikipedia.org/Waco,_Texas). There are also nine smaller communities surrounding Waco. Waco is home to the Lake Waco Wetlands, the Brazos and Bosque Rivers, and 400-acre Cameron Park (http://www.waco-texas.com). This means that there are many different kinds of habitats in Waco. We have urban areas, woods, rocky cliffs, wetlands, and lots of farmland.

For this project, I interviewed five people. Charles Clark, Bud Clark, and Paul Derrick have lived in Waco for many years. Wes Penney is a Cameron Park Ranger and has lived in Waco his entire life. James Johnson is a herpetologist with the Cameron Park Zoo and has lived in Waco for eight years. Only three of these people have seen a horned lizard in Waco. In 1979, Bud Clark saw one in the rural area where he lives. Wes Penney remembers playing with horned lizards as a child in the late 1980’s. He says that they were easy to catch and he liked to watch the horned lizards spit at their food. James Johnson has seen horned lizards as recently as 2004. Sometimes when people find a horned lizard, they bring it to Mr. Johnson at the zoo. He tells them to return the horned lizard to where they found it, because it means that there is a colony there. Mr. Johnson said that there are two known colonies of horned lizards in the Beverly Hills area of Waco. Most of the people I interviewed felt that the horned lizard was most common from 1940-1970. Horned lizards may have been around much earlier though. Paul Derrick remembers seeing a picture of early starving settlers eating a horned lizard in a history book he had as a child. Also Baylor University was a popular place for horned lizards to live in the early 1900’s (Manaster 1997) (http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/StreckerJ.K.html).

All of the people I interviewed believe that the horned lizard has become more rare in Waco. Paul Derrick has seen horned lizards at Galveston Bay as a child and in Big Bend as an adult, but none at all in Waco. Neither Bud Clark nor Wes Penney have seen any within the last fifteen years. Charles Clark has never seen a horned lizard in person, but said that Clint Eastwood used to carry one in his front pocket for luck when he filmed movies. Everyone has different opinions as to why the horned lizards have declined. Some of the opinions are lack of habitat, pesticides and fertilizers in the water table, fire ants eating the red harvester ants that the horned lizards eat, DDT, and more red-tailed hawks which eat horned lizards.

After my research I believe the horned lizard was most common before 1970. The horned lizard population seemed to be going down through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. That time period is also when the fire ants arrived and caused the red harvester ants to leave. Pesticides and fertilizers were also frequently used during this time. Now that people are using more organic and natural ways to fertilize and control pests, maybe the horned lizards will come back to this area someday. At this time, the fire ants are still a problem. If we can find a way to control the fire ants, maybe the red harvester ants will return. Hopefully in the future, horned lizards will once again be a common sight for children everywhere!

Bibliography

City of Waco, Texas. 10 January 2005. < http://www.waco-texas.com>.

John Kern Strecker. 9 January 2005.

<http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/StreckerJ.K.html>.

Manaster, Jane. Horned Lizards. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.

Waco, Texas. 10 January 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/Waco,_Texas>.