This is first I have ever heard of Alabama. North Carolina definitely has a population that is documented, and I have a group member who actually collected 3 P. cornutum this summer. I have the pictures. A male and two females I believe...or the other way around. That population is very small and isolated.
The NC Herp Society knows about the location.

I have heard Florida in the past, but seen no evidence that they are there. I think many people assume this because there are Pogos in northern FL.

Alabama I would say is a long shot, though the cornutum previously inhabited western LA. and AR. in decades past, and may still be isolated pops somewhere. But, Alabama and Mississippi were the first hit with imported fire ant invasion, and that makes it less likely to be plausible.

I would tend to lean toward the opinion that the reportee maybe did not know what he was seeing. I run into people all the time, especially people outside of heavy Phrynosoma country, who are not sure what a HL really looks like. I have had people show me HLs that turned out to be everything from Spiny lizards, to Beardies, to Anoles! I have one acquaintance that contacts me all the time to come chase down on her property a "big yellow necked horny toad" that I am SURE is in fact a collared lizard....






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www.groups.yahoo.com/group/HornedLizards
www.youtube.com/user/PhrynosomaTexas
Wichita Falls Reptile Rescue
Harvester Ants

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