Howdy
Herpers,
9/12/13
Well friends, it has been too long since Typing Boy here has addressed you. I
trust that the lack of reports lately has not caused too much angst in your
lives?
So much has happened since Marty found that little tortoise in the black widow
spider web that I hardly know where to begin. I do know that this had better be
good, and my face now retains the red marks of a severe bitch-slapping from my
own hand. There are 2600 reasons to shine now. Wake up and address these
people, Roger! And make it count. Dammit!
As some of you know, the Herp Accountant here has been keeping close tabs on
every turtle, snake, and lizard that he encounters. In some cases, the counts
go back to 1989. But the common lizard numbers did not begin in earnest until
the year 2000. It is that 12 plus year time period, along with the common
lizards, that are going to be discussed next.
While every herp found is enshrined in my hallowed herp journal, there are
really only six species of lizard that I consider indicators of how good or bad
a herp year is. Experience has taught me that these wiggly little suckers, to
varying degrees, are the herps that clearly demonstrate how good or bad a year
can be. Without further adieu, these six species are Zebra-tailed
Lizards, Side-blotched Lizards, Whiptails, Desert Spiny Lizards, Regal Horned
Lizards, and, of course, Gila Monsters. There is another number that plays as a
wild card in my judgment of a herp year. That is the total number of lizards
encountered.
The same system is used on snakes and turtles. We are not going to talk all
that much on these except for one thing: 2013 is heading toward the worst herp
year that I’ve ever had for snakes. At the end of August, 160 snakes were
logged. My worst snake year ever was 221, and that was in 2002. Unless things
pick up mightily, the lamenting in the year-end report for the Tucson
Herpetological Society Journal is going to be impressive in both content and
duration. (And if you want to see that report, you will have to become a member
of the THS. Cough up your 20 bucks, pikers!).
Now that we have discussed what is bad in 2013, can we move on to the good?
Great! Let’s mow these lizards down in order. For the Zebra-tailed Lizards, my
best year of the century was 1,519. That was in 2008. With two months of possible
encounters remaining, (they shut down by early November), the number for 2013
is 1,398. Already, 2013 is the second best year of the century. Will we beat
2008? Time will tell! With the Side-blotched Lizards, unless hordes of them
suddenly rain down upon us, we will wind up with only slightly above average
numbers. No big deal. Their best use is conversion to Lyresnake mass.
Hopefully, that’s where they all went this year. We’re done with the likes of
them. With the Whiptails, (several species), we have already broken the record
set last year. That number was 453. We are now at 575! In 2008, I encountered
137 Desert Spiny Lizards. The count for these chunky fat heads is currently
108, which is 35 above average over the time period under discussion. Again in
2008, 20 Regal Horned Lizards were found which I crowed mightily about at the
time. In 2013, the number now stands at 23, with more incoming expected. This
is a record-breaker for one of the lizards that I love most! Last year, a
record number of 32 Gila Monsters were encountered. At this point in 2013, we
are at 25. We are already at the third best year of the century with these
numbers, and again, more incoming is expected. Last, but not least, the wild
card. Again, in 2008, the all species of lizard count was 2,978. This year, we
are at 3,043! If we did not see one more stinking lizard for the remainder of
the year, we are still walking in tall cotton.
We will stop with this type of herpetological bean-counter talk here, and move
on to the hard-wired snakes under watch in paradise. Before my emailed leg-hump
of late, we had 14 different rattlesnakes under watch, and were facing the
prospect of cutting some of those out of the game. Thanks to what I am now
calling the 2600 club, our N is now 17. And we expect to bump that to 20 by the
end of this month. Yes sirs and madams, 20 transmitters will soon be merrily
blipping across a swath of remote Sonoran Desert Thornscrub 2 kilometers long
by 1 kilometer wide. When we fire up those receivers, we will not know whether
to defecate, or go blind. This is called “fun.” The thrill of mowing down
20 rattlesnakes whilst hoofing through a sticker-infested wonderland is
mother’s milk to the few, the proud, the geeks! Thanks guys! And come on out to
play with us sometime………
As much as Typing Boy would like to show you each and every snake that we have
out there now, that is not possible. Truth be told, some of the newer snakes
have yet to reveal themselves for good, in situ images. A case in point is our
newest snake, CA134, a young male atrox. We released him on the evening
of 31 August. I did not track him for the first time until 7 September. His
signal was coming from the center of a flat, heart-shaped slab of gneiss. When
I looked into the soil entrance, I saw two large adults looking back out at me.
CA134 was behind these two no doubt stuck until they decide to leave. Right off
the bat, he leads us to a mini aggregation. Sensational!
Until now, I have made no mention of a little sweetheart of a female molossus
that is under watch. She is CM18, as yet un-named. She is just shy of 2
feet long, and her rattle count is basal, 4 segments, and a button. Marty found
her hanging out with our pregnant molossus CM17. Mother, daughter? Time
will tell, I just hope that the DNA gets processed in my lifetime so that we
will know for sure. The first image in this report is of her. We released her
on 10 August, and with the first tracking on 14 August, she has scored a meal.
Bully for her!
Speaking of scoring meals, Mr. Feldner was blessed to observe, and subsequently
photograph, our female tiger CT13 track down and consume a pocket mouse. See
image number 2. Following her feast, she moved from the flats to the top of
Iron Mine Hill. A fattened female will draw in males quicker than flies on
feces. Like a jack rabbit on a hot date, our male tiger, CT11, made a major
move of over 300 meters to join her. And on the evening of 7 September, lucky
Marty and John Slone found the pair in full coitus. See image 3. While we were
blessed to see five pairings last year, this is the first mating event with
tigers that we have ever witnessed. We’re moving on up!
I’ve tossed a hodge-podge of images into this report. They’re all labeled, so
that you will know who is who and when. Look for a full screen view of a
cluster of three barrel cacti. Where’s Waldo? The next image reveals him. Look
for two images of a tortoise. The first shows the surreal backdrop of a Sonoran
Desert, and the second pulls the rear of the tortoise into view. Look carefully
at the rear vertebral scute. That is what is left of a license plate that was
affixed to his shell in 2005. It took that rascal eight years to finally wear
off. Nice job, Josh! Check out the nice string of rattles on CT14. This snake
in particular is still in the game for another year, thanks to the 2600 club.
He was on the bubble prior to your generosity. He is probably less grateful
than we are about the prospect, but there is no allowance for poop socks on our
turf.
The second to the last image is a teaser for you. You won’t have to look too
hard to see that there is more than one snake in that image. By June, despite
assurances from Dr. DeNardo that CM10, “Susan,” had six neonates in her
ovaries, we had determined that Susan was not pregnant. The night that this
photo was taken, I was still under the notion that she was not pregnant. I was
correct! It was not until 10 days after this image was taken that the two
neonates were discovered.
Everybody ought to carry a camera. They come in handy sometimes! Our next
report will center on matters of fecundity in paradise. For now:
This here is Roger Repp, signing off from Southern Arizona, where the turtles
are strong, the snakes are handsome, and the lizards are ALL above average. It
is a place where every meal is a banquet, every sunrise is an event, and every
sunset brings the promise of good things lying ahead.