Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son and I are currently on vacation in New Mexico and went out herping yesterday in the volcanic area west of Albuquerque.
We saw numerous collareds and caught several to check them out before releasing them. Out of the ten or so caught, all appeared to be young males (either juveniles from last summer's hatch or yearlings) with no adults of either sex or any females at all to be seen or caught. Last summer, we collected 3 babies from the same area that also all turned out to be males. We are new to field herping in the Southwest so we were very curious as to why this would occur. Do wild collareds segregate themselves according to sex and age group? I am amazed that no adults or females would be out at this time of year. I have been told by herpers that this should be the breeding season due to the cooler than normal spring that they experienced down here. Any ideas or observations?

Hey how ya doing buddy? Those girls are smart, they are holding out for the BEST and FINEST DUDES, lol I have been hearing things also about temperatures being erratic/ cooler in colorado as well. The older lizards may be mating later this year due to the cooler weather.

The younger ones always come out early and stay out later I think, even in captivity I see it. Of course this is just my thoughts. I think you will see plenty of adults if you stick around for any length of time. As far as dividing up sexes and hanging in groups, NO, they do not do that. Males would not all hang together. May be just a time that more males have hatched, like cycles, some years there probably are more females spotted. May just be nature balancing things out some. Females are probably just now gravid or even laying (right now) and not out basking as much.

They are there ,,,,, Enjoy your vacation!
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Eve
Suncharmers Colorful Collareds & More

Hi Eve,

Thanks for the reply. It makes a lot of sense. Today my son and I went herping in the 4 Corners area and had a wonderful day. We spotted around 15 collareds thanks to some wonderful tips from Barney Oldfield on where to look. The males were all magnificent -- bright blue bodies with yellow bands on the back and white/gray heads with yellow on the nose and eyes. The interesting thing was that out of the total of 15 only 3 were females. 2 out of the 3 were showing gravid coloration and were much more wary than the males. I guess the females are probably laying low waiting to lay their eggs. On our 2 herping excursions (Albuquerque and the 4 Corners) we spotted almost 30 collareds with only 3 females being seen. All in all, we loved every minute and were really amazed by the variety of collareds to be found in New Mexico.

Incubation temperature affects sex, so if you're herping in an area where the eggs somewhat recently were warmer than average, that's probably it.
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)