The San Diego Horned Lizards are in very low numbers or extinct now everywhere within a few miles of the coast in San Diego County except for possibly parts of Camp Pendleton which is undeveloped. I found three this year, two in the mountain east of San Pasqual and one near a trailhead to Eagle Mountain(which had been burnt by the Cedar Fire), all somewhat remote areas. P. Californicus now seems to be absent to most coastal habitats with under one square mile of open space, expecially where there are invasive non-native plants in which Argentinan Ants easily completely take over. Where they still exist there may be isolated pockets where there are horned lizard populations if they are undisturbed.

I used to work at an orchard on a hill in Carlsbad where there were horned lizards in the 70's. When I was a kid almost 50 years ago they were very common in the fields adjacent to Big Springs Rd in Riverside between UCR and the Box Springs Mountains. The habitats where they used to be very common have been either developed, altered, or their food supply has been eliminated. Domestic preditors and overcollecting also helped in their demise from these areas, once their populations becomes marginal. They aren't resiliant like fence lizards and side-blotched lizards are, and once they're gone you can't expect them to return.

Decades of uncontrolled development in Southern California have resulted in a holocast for many native animal populations and horned lizards have fared much worse than most.

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