Tucson critters

[khemlab]

Hello, fellow Tucsonans! What are your favorite local animals? Birds, reptiles, insects, mammals, arachnids, it matters not. Will you tell me why you think they're neat?

Comments

[footnotefetish]

I'm probably not being very original, but here goes:

1. Quail, because it's fun to watch little quail families walk in single-file.

2. Javelinas, because they look a little bit like pigs, and I've never met a pig I didn't like.

3. Ornate tree lizards, because I like watching them do push-ups, and because they keep insect populations under control.

4. Western slender blindsnakes, since they look like shiny earthworms and are such a rare spectacle above ground.

[alsoname]

Ornate tree lizards are also fun because they have more than one "male gender" (at least that's one way of looking at it, as different types of males have different endocrinological profiles).

Also Sonoran whiptail lizards are an all-female species. The eggs they lay are clones, but their fertility is increased when they engage in sexual behavior with one another.

And round-tailed ground squirrels because CUUUUTE.

[footnotefetish]

Now that I've looked at images of both of them online, I think I assumed Sonoran whiptail lizards and ornate tree lizards were the same. I just figured it was the same species but with different coloration or something.

Thanks for the cool info about their gender!

[khemlab]

Western slender blindsnakes

Ooh, nice! I've never heard of these. =)

[footnotefetish]

I hope you get to see one someday. It's like your eyes are playing tricks on you; it's a snake, but it's the size of a worm.