User:Jameshowells/San Diego horned lizard

Appearance
The San Diego Horned Lizard or the Blainville's Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma blainvillii) is a flat bodied lizard with long spiky horns located on the top and side of its head and has smaller spikes throughout its body and tail.

The length of an adult size lizard can range from 2.5 inches to 4.5 inches measure from the tip of its snout to its bottom just before where the tail starts. They are either red, brown, yellow or gray in color and have several black spots on their back and neck.

Reproduction
Each year the female Blainville's horned lizard lays eggs in May-June and can lay about 6-21 eggs in a year. A few months after they are laid in August- September they begin to hatch.

The females will lay their eggs in the Santa Monica and Simi Hills area.

Range and Habitat
They range from Baja California, Sierra Nevada, Bay Area, and Shasta Reservoir.

These lizards are usually found to habitat near mountains in areas that are sandy, with low vegetation and near ant hills.

Genders
The difference between males and females is that the female lizards are bigger than the males. The males also have bigger horns on the base of their tails and have noticeable pores on the interior of their hind legs.

Diet
Their diet is mostly Harvester ants but they do eat spiders, beetles, termites, and other insects.

Defense
Their first defensive strategy to avoid predators is to use their body color to blend in with their surroundings and to remain still.

If they are seen they will try to run away and hide in bushes to cover themselves in sand.

If they can not hide from predators they will try other defensive tactics such as hissing, biting, or using the horns on their heads and body as weapons.

If they are out of defensive options they can shoot blood out of their eyes to scare off predators.

Predators
These lizards are vulnerable to a wide range of predators such as Badgers, Foxes, Coyotes, house pets, Greater Roadrunner, Loggerhead Shrike, American Kestrel, Burrowing Owl, and the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake.

Population
The population of horned lizards are declining because of habitat loss or degradation, hunting or capturing by humans, and an increase of invasive species of Argentine ants.

The lizard’s population was also impacted by the curio trade from 1890-1910, where it was estimated that 115,000 horned lizards in California were killed stuffed and sold as souvenirs.