Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Som and I went out Herpping in California City To day, we saw

(1) Collared Lizard
(lots)Yellow Back spiney Lizards
(3or4)Desert Iguana
(tons of)zebra-tails
(1)Chuckwala (maybe)
(1)Desert Tortoise(a little girl was playing with it)

But no DHL's Not sure what the deal is but we also whet to Red Rock, all looked great, we had good deep sand ants all over, big black ones, red ones and some that were black and red, but no DHL's. I can find the CHL's but the DHL's I'm not so lucky. Do you guys look for any special plants most of this area was Creasote flats, lots of dirt roads and some rock piles, am i looking in the right places?

Cecil

Hey Cecil, sounds like exactly the right environment! Creosote flats and DHL's usually go hand in hand. Problem could be timing. It was probably pretty hot yesterday, right?
HL's, unlike many desert lizards, will usually only come out on hot days in the cooler part of the hot day. Best to search for them on hot days from about 10am to noon, and then again from about 4 to 6pm. You may notice more ant activity at these times too. Some people would even rather search for them by road cruising dirt roads instead of walking. Reason being, HL's will usually freeze when approached by humans, allowing them to "blend" better with habitat, but tend to just scatter in the presence of a car making them much easier to see. I still prefer to walk. Desert Iguanas, Zebra tail lizards, and other such "sand" lizards are out most of the day making them seem more abundant!
Good luck with the DHL's.

Desert tortoises are a very touchy specie. Next time you see someone "playing" with one you may want to simply ask them not to! Typically they carry a stored "water supply" and are easily stressed and sometimes in the case of being stressed they will "release" their stored water subjecting them to dehydration. Just a suggestion for future knowledge. They are also very highly protected, and just touching them is a violation!

-Ryan

Thanks for the heads up on the Tortoise, I didn't think to help him get away from the Girl, It was hot yesterday, we started looking about 7;30am and got lunch and headed for home about 1;30pm, at that time it was 94f and started blowing pretty good, it seemed that the whiptails and DI's were just coming out and the zebra-tails were getting more active