Eastern Montana’s short-horned lizard, often known as a sexy toad, has a singular approach to keep protected. The reptile can shoot blood out of its eyes.
The blood has a nasty style that comes from consuming harvester ants.
If you occur to see one, blood squirting out its eyes or not, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks want to know.
The higher short-horned lizard was as soon as thought-about the second most plentiful reptile alongside the Missouri River in Montana, second solely to the western rattlesnake. Now scientists want extra info on the lizard’s inhabitants and the place they stay.
“If you happen to observe one anywhere in the state, please record the location, get GPS coordinates if possible, and note the date, number observed, and take a photo with something in the picture for scale if you can,” stated Nicole Hussey, an FWP wildlife biologist.
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Observations may be reported to native FWP biologists.
Adult higher short-horned lizards are diurnal, that means they’re most lively throughout the hotter daytime.
The coloration of their pores and skin blends in with their environment and may differ relying on the place they stay.
The broad, flattened physique separates this lizard from the opposite three lizard species usually present in Montana, and the place it lives overlaps solely with the widespread sagebrush lizard, which is way more slender.
It’s head has a heart-shaped look when seen from above.
They are sometimes discovered on south or east-facing slopes of coulees and ridge tops, and a few open flats.
They want residing close to sagebrush, creeping juniper, or rabbitbrush with sparse bunch grass, patches of naked floor, and shale-like soil. They are even present in some ponderosa pine stands.
— Fish, Wildlife & Parks
