Horny Toad

He ran across my path to a hiding place under a bush. I unsnagged him and put him on dirt for a better picture, but as you can see, his camouflage is impeccable. With a perfect match between the highlights on his suit and the fungus on the sage, he's the envy of Tommy Hilfiger.








He's not really a toad. His real name is Phrynosoma platyrhinos, or Desert Horned Lizard. He has a distinguished lineage that reaches back more than a million years, into the Pliocene. He shares an ancestor with the sand lizards (found in Europe and Mongolia). The Spaniards brought this lizard to European courts because Fernando Hernandez saw a live one squirt blood from its eyes and it was because of this rare talent that the natives of the American Southwest thought them sacred. (check out this really cool video http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=1800) In Mexico, they were known as "The Virgin's Little Bull."

Four of the Horned Lizard species defend themselves by squirting blood mixed with a foul chemical from their eyes at mammal predators. The blood however, does not deter bird predators. For birds, they either flatten and bury themselves or raise their horns or both to keep the birds from finding a beak hold.





This particular species of lizard lives in lowland deserts, usually where there's sand; the northern reaches of their range start in Oregon and stretch through Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California and Baja. In many of these areas, they are declining. The decline is believed to be loss of habitat and loss of prey. They eat harvester ants, primarily, but these staples of the southern deserts are being challenged for territory by 2 species of agressive and territorial South American ants--both of which were introduced. Additionally, the use of pesticides is making poison of the Horned Lizard's dinner. I know, we all hate ants, but they do have a niche.