They're probably about as common as any typical colubrid in that habitat, but so secretive as to be seldom encountered. Lyre snakes are shy dwellers of rocky areas, spending most of their time in crevices. Arizona is pretty much made of crevices. Even grasslands around the Sky Island mountains of the Huachucas, Santa Ritas and Baboquivaris are composed of buried boulders, the soil honeycombed with crevices that form a subterranean community never seen by surface dwellers.

The occasional Lyre that crosses a road is usually all we ophidophiles get to see. Since gender can determine behavior, it's not surprising that surface-active animals are predominantly one gender or the other. I've seen Lyre snakes in the most miserable hellscapes around Yuma and the lush grasslands on the slopes of the Huachucas. I've encountered them in crevices at Bagdad and in the Mazatzal mountains of central Arizona. A very adaptable animal and widespread despite being seldom seen. Lizard-eaters, so it figures they'd be successful--Arizona is lousy with lizards. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

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