The Fort Worth Zoo just lately introduced on a social media publish that it is going to be releasing extra Texas Horned Lizard hatchlings into the wild.
The publish mentioned “Little lizard, huge world. These tiny Texas horned lizard hatchlings are getting ready to be launched into the wild … keep tuned for updates!”
This information comes two years after the Zoo, together with assistance from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. (TPWD) together with Dallas Zoo and Caldwell Zoo launched 204 captive-raised hatchlings into the wild (100 of which hatched on the Fort Worth Zoo).
This initiative was developed by the Zoo in 2011, when it introduced that it had perfected the breeding and husbandry protocols required to efficiently breed and look after Texas horned lizards in managed collections. Since then, these practices have been carried out and modeled at a number of zoos across the state, in accordance with a launch.
Each 12 months, a coalition made up of Texas zoos and wildlife scientists collect to launch hatchlings again into the wild.
And this initiative appears to be paying off.
In 2021, TPWD biologists and graduate college students found a breakthrough milestone. They discovered 18 hatchlings believed to be offspring of zoo-raised hatchlings launched in 2019. To their data, this marks the primary time that zoo-reared horned lizards have survived lengthy sufficient to efficiently reproduce within the wild.
For greater than 10 years, the Texas Horned Lizard Coalition, together with the TPWD, TCU, and zoos in Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and elsewhere, have been learning the way to restore Texas horned lizards to their previously occupied habitats. Reintroduction efforts have occurred at TPWD’s Mason Mountain and Muse Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) the place in depth habitat administration and restoration have offered important “new homes” for the lizard.
These efforts started when researchers tried translocating grownup lizards, capturing them within the wild after which releasing them on the WMAs. This offered a wealth of useful knowledge, nevertheless it additionally highlighted some challenges. Many relocated lizards didn’t survive as a result of they had been killed by predators. According to an article written by TPWD, regular wild mortality ranges are at 70-90%, which scientists witnessed in translocated grownup horned lizards. These scientists additionally hypothesized that capturing and translocating adequate adults within the wild to determine self-sustaining populations could show unsustainable long-term.
For these causes, in recent years the main focus has shifted to captive breeding Texas horned lizards at accomplice zoos, which makes it doable to breed and launch a whole bunch of lizards without delay. Texas horned lizards have massive clutch sizes with many eggs, typically with a number of clutches every year.
Biologists stay optimistic that continued analysis and restoration work will finally result in self-sustaining wild populations of Texas horned lizards. This species is just one out of 1,300 species of concern throughout the state.
