Blunt-nosed leopard lizard
| Blunt-nosed leopard lizard | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Iguania |
| Family: | Iguanidae |
| Genus: | Gambelia |
| Species: | G. sila |
| Binomial name | |
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Gambelia sila (Stejneger, 1890) |
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Gambelia sila, also known as the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, is a blunt nosed lizard found in California.
Gambelia sila was discovered by Stejneger in 1890 it was classified as Crotaphytus silus. Stejneger discovered Gambelia sila in Fresno, California. In 1900 Cope believed the lizard to be a subspecies of the long-nosed leopard lizard, C. wislizenii, and classified it as C. w. silus. Based on differences in bony plates on the head, the presence or absence of gular folds, and head shape, Gambelia sila was reclassified into the genus Gambelia by Smith in 1946, retaining the species name silus. This is the genus name for leopard lizards in the family Crotaphytidae. Gambelia sila is similar to the lizards in the genus Crotaphytus, the difference is that the latter have fracture planes in their tails. This allows the tails to break off when grasped by predators. This reclassification remained controversial until Montanucci in 1970 proposed the argument for specific classification based on the differences between the long-nosed and blunt-nosed leopard lizards. Eventually the name was changed from "Gambelia silas" to "Gambelia sila" to agree in gender.
Gambelia sila is found primarily in Southern California. It used to be found in the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent foothills ranging from Stanislaus County, in the south, to the northern tip of Santa Barbara. However it is only found in elevations of 800 meter, (2,600 feet,) and below. Gambelia sila can now only be found in isolated sections of undeveloped land in San Joaquin Valley. In the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley they can be found in Ciervo, Tumey, and Panoche Hills, Anticline Ridge, Pleasant Valley, and the Lone Tree, Sandy Mush Road, Whitesbridge, Horse Pasture, and Kettleman Hills Essential Habitat Areas. In the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley they can be found in Pixley National Wildlife Refuge, Liberty Farm, Allensworth, Kern National Wildlife Refuge, Antelope Plain, Buttonwillow, Elk Hills, Lost Hills, and Tupman Essential Habitat Areas; on the Carrizo and Elkhorn Plains; north of Bakersfield around Poso Creek; in western Kern County in the area around the towns of Maricopa, McKittrick, and Taft; at the Kern Front oil field; at the base of the Tehachapi Mountains on Tejon Ranch; and just west of the California Aqueduct on the Tejon and San Emizdio Ranches.
The diet of Gambelia sila mainly consists of an assortment of invertebrates and other lizards. The insects that it normally preys on are: grasshoppers, beetles, bees, wasps and ants. The blunt nose lizard is also known to eat other species of lizard, and sometimes eats its own offspring. It is an agile predator, with the ability to leap 60 centimeters making it very easy to catch its prey.
The blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila) is a relatively large lizard of the Crotaphytidae family. It has a long, regenerative tail, long, powerful hind limbs, and a short, blunt snout. Adult males are slightly larger than females, ranging in size from 3.4 to 4.7 inches (86 to 119 mm) in length, excluding tail. Females are 3.4 to 4.4 inches (86 to 112 mm). Males weigh 1.3 to 1.5 ounces (37 to 43 g), females 0.8 to 1.2 ounces (23 to 34 g). Although blunt-nosed leopard lizards are darker than other leopard lizards, they exhibit tremendous variation in color and pattern on their backs. Their background color ranges from yellowish or light gray-brown to dark brown, depending on the surrounding soil color and vegetation. Their undersides are uniformly white. They have rows of dark spots across their backs, alternating with white, cream-colored or yellow bands. Gambelia sila is relatively unique among crotaphytidae in that sexes cannot be distinguished by permanent coloration and patterning, but both males and females develop breeding coloration, and these colors and patterns differ markedly between them. Also, unlike almost all other crotaphytidae, juvenile G. sila obtain a yellow coloring under their hind limbs and tails. The signs of yellow coloration in young G. sila might indicate that some type of signal is being sent to adult leopard lizards, although no testing has been done. Possibly the purpose of yellow coloration is to signal to adults that carriers are too small to breed, and, therefore, do not pose a competitive threat. Conversely, the bright yellow coloration of juveniles could serve as a means of avoiding predators.
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