Along with the missing turtles, I have seen very few lizards this year.
When I was doing an estate sale in Harleton, I regularly saw a 5 Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) and a 6 Lined Racerunner Whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis sexlineata). At the RV park I have seen one Anolis lizard (Anolis carolinensis) and a couple of times I have seen 5 Lined Skinks - including one on my site when I was moving big rocks to make an outdoor fire ring.
On my several trips across the highway where I walk in the woods, I have seen 2 Anolis lizards. Two.
Today, as I walked from the office to my RV, I saw a small Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceous).
So in six months of suitable weather, in all my time outdoors (which is considerable), I have seen 8 lizards of 4 different species. I don't understand that. I used to spend a few minutes in the woods and would see more than that.
Where are the lizards?
I did a quick Google search and found nothing. Unlike with turtles which had lots of hits. But I do know the difference is extreme.
From the time I was a kid through my years as a biologist, I could always find dozens of lizards anywhere I went in Texas. In west Texas there were Whiptails (Cnemidophorus then - Aspidoscelis now) everywhere; Uta were common in the right areas; lots of Urosaurus; and, of course, the long missing Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum). In east Texas there were large numbers of Sceloporus, Aspidoscelis, Phrynosoma and Anolis lizards. By large numbers, I mean I could see a dozen or more in a 15 minute walk.
I do know what happened to the Texas Horned Lizards. Their food source was wiped out and they went away - well, not completely, but they are missing in most areas now and rare in the few places they are still found. When I was a kid, they were everywhere you looked, as were their food source, Red Harvester Ants (Pogomyramex). A combination of pesticides and then competition from fire ants have devastated the Red Harvester Ant populations. Since they made up at least 65% of Horned Lizards diet, their populations were devastated, too.
But that doesn't explain what happened to the Spiny Lizards, the Anolis, and all the other formerly common species.
I am going to have to do some research and see what I can find.
