It’s like a bluebelly on steroids.  This was a female Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus).

From my photo blog:  PhoBloggery.com

Andrew Marshall of the University of York’s Environment Department, out on a monkey survey in the Magombera Forest in Tanzania, stumbled across a snake eating an unfamiliar looking lizard.

It turned out to be extremely unfamiliar.  This was, in fact, a whole new species of chameleon.

Meet Kinyongia magomberae (the Magombera chameleon).

Read more on Discovery News.

(Read Article on PawNation)

This somewhat misleading title on PawNation links to a rather interesting article on problems caused by letting exotic pets go into the wild.

This is actually old news.  But it’s a really good picture.

Personally, if I were a kid right now, I’d be excited about the prospect of going out to catch these babies in the wild.  What an awesome snake!

Here’s a great article with pictures illustrating that the chameleon has significant competition in the lizard-camouflage game.

Yes, there is a lizard in this picture.  Amazing, no?

I think I was about six years old when I began catching things called horny toads. Actually they’re lizards, not toads, and I what attracted me to them is they look like miniature dinosaurs.

Unlike regular lizards, these have a round pancake-like body, and out the back of their heads sprouts a crown of horns. Their scaly, thorny skin has a mottled white and brown coloration, which makes them blend in with desert soil, and they have a big, soft white belly that’s speckled with tiny dots of black. All around the edge of their belly is a serrated row of soft little spikes, like a wiggly saw blade.

The most unusual thing about them is that they will squirt blood at you out of their eyes. This is absolutely true…

I remember the first time this happened, when I was catching a big one that was probably an alpha male. He struggled mightily in my little kid hands, and when he couldn’t get loose (and I suppose he figured I was about to eat him) he folded his eyes back and ejected two jets of stinky red blood. It startled me and I dropped him, and he played dead for a minute or two while I wiped the blood off onto my pant legs. Then he blinked a few times to clear the blood away, and ran off. When I caught him again he did the same thing, but a lot less blood came out, and this time I didn’t let him go.

Years later, in a junior high biology class, a teacher was telling the class that horny toads squirting blood from their eyes was a myth, and I raised my hand and told him that, no, it wasn’t, that I’d seen it several times. He was skeptical even after I told him the story, and finally I had to show him a passage about it from the Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. I remember his only comment was, “I’ll be damned.”

I’ve always wanted to show my kids a real, live horny toad, but they’re pretty much extinct now except in isolates spots, and by the time I have grandkids they’ll probably have gone the way of their big cousins, the dinosaur.

From Tales of the Lizard Hunter
By Jerry J. Davis

Is this an awesome photo or what?  I wish I’d taken it, but I didn’t – this was snapped by Quinton Robinson.  I snatched it from Neatorama.com after they snatched it from National Geographic.

Amazing photo, Quinton!

Here is a blog about animals that is so entertaining that I’d actually pay to read it.

Click:  http://weirdimals.wordpress.com

…and enjoy!

Mountain lake shore
In afternoon shade
I leap from bow into grass
Thick white rope in my hands
To tie a good knot
That will keep the boat
From drifting

In the green grass
Over by a log
We notice black and white rings
“A kingsnake” says my friend
He bends down to grab
A tail where I see
A rattle

I yank him back
He does not believe
So I carefully handle
Scales rough and beautiful
Holding it eye level
It shows us its fangs
Of venom

From Poetry by Jerry J. Davis

Darwin sat wearily on the back deck of the steamer, gazing out at the islands and bidding them farewell.A large lizard swam behind the boat, calling to him. “Darwin! Darwin, please… Don’t leave me!”

“I’m sorry,” he said to the lizard. “It would have never worked.”

“I’ll change for you,” the lizard called out. “I swear I will!”

He shook his head, knowing she could never change. Her children perhaps, but not her.

From Flash Fiction by Jerry J. Davis