What You Can Do to Help or Hinder Horned Lizards
by Lee Stone, HLCS President, Phrynosomatics, December 1993
I promised in my last article to address the issue of what each of us can do to DIRECTLY BENEFIT the horned lizard species in our areas. My comments are extrapolations based on observation and deduction. Scientists will rightly say there is no hard evidence: no experiments have been conducted for years to absolutely corroborate the assumptions given here. But HLCS has been criticized for holding back, for waiting for the scientists' conclusions.
The National Board of Directors has also found it difficult to summarize our findings for another reason: for fear of sounding critical of the very people who may care the most and whose help is needed the most – the private landowner. That is not our intention. We would be criticizing ourselves.
Certain actions taken by many of us – over the years and even today – have and continue to have devastating effects on horned lizards. These activities are usually based on an economic need. And the people involved are usually caring people for whom the actions seem necessary. Often other forces are at work. For example, farmers and ranchers may be following the best advice of professional consultants, such as the Texas Department of Agriculture, or the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, or the Soil Conservation Service, regarding best management practices for maximum crop yield or cattle production. They may be taking part in government programs to convert to improved pastures. Reliance on pesticides still is reality for many producers. Many of these same organizations also offer programs to help wildlife and conserve soil and water resources. Whether they are heeded depends on the individual landowner. These things having been said, read on.
Harmful Activity #1: Conversion of native pasture land to improved pasture or to cropland.
Horny toads hibernate under the ground during the winter. They lay their eggs underground. They can bury themselves and return again, but they cannot return to the surface when they are upside down and belly up under several inches of overturned sod. Horny toad young are especially weak, small and vulnerable. Horny toad eggs seldom survive the plow: They are broken, overheated by sun or exposed to predators. Even if some survive the plowing, the most desirable "improved" (aka exotic) grasses form mats, rather than bunches. See the next activity for the problem with this.
Harmful Activity #2: Replacing native vegetation and bare spots in residential yards with thick grass lawns.
Horned lizards are limited (by the very shape which we love so much) to making their living on the flat ground, not in trees or shrubs. On the ground, they move best when not impeded by vegetation. The native bunch grasses allow little animals to form runways around the bunches and still provide cover. Bermuda grass and St. Augustine grass, for example, are totally inappropriate for horned lizard habitat. These grasses form thick mats, prohibiting the lizards from easy passage across or under the grass runners. Horned toads, especially the young ones, become easy targets for cats, dogs, and large birds.
Harmful Activity #3: Using pesticides to kill insects, including fire ants, in your pastures and lawns.
Horned lizards prefer to eat, and are specialized for eating, the big harvester ants. These ants form large nests, often 3 to 6 feet across. The nest may be flat or conical, and are usually cleared of most vegetation.
There is usually only one entry hole. And the ants forage along little highways which they have cleared of vegetation. The ants may be all red, or red and black, or all black, depending on which species you have in your area. Horned lizards prefer to hunt by waiting along the side of the ant highways, licking up one ant at a time. Each lizard may need to forage near several ant nests to get enough food.
Kill these ants and you do great harm to your horny toads. They simply aren't built to chase down insects like ordinary lizards do. Their diets will be poorer and their health may be affected. Horned lizards do not like being swarmed by fire ants any more than you do.
It is important to remember that to sustain the Horned Lizard, we must also sustain what it eats, the principal of which is harvester ants (red ants). Seed produced by native grasses is an important food source for the ants. Many hybrid bermudas and some other turf grasses fail to make seed and should be avoided.
Harmful Activity #4: Taking Horned Lizards as pets or for sale.
How many of us collected horned lizards as pets, gave or traded them to friends, or actually took part in the pet trade that shipped literally thousands of them out of the state (Texas) to their deaths? A lot of us. Don't do it anymore. When you see one, don't you or your children take it home. Leave it and count your blessings.
"Good" Activities
If you are a rancher with native pasture, keeping it that way helps. Maybe you haven't seen horny toads in a long while, but they could very likely still be there.
If you are considering converting native pasture to dry land crops, we'd urge you to stay with ranching, if you want horny toads to share your life. Or if you do convert, leave large wildlife buffers. Even small buffers help. We know of a handful of horny toads that lived in an unplowed swale in a crop field, until the farmer plowed up the swale, too.
If you are willing to convert some cultivated land back into native pasture, do so. Talk to your local Soil Conservation Service people about this. If you don't have wildlife buffers now, create some.
On the pesticide issue, think of the balance of nature: Horny toads need to eat harvester ants. Little creatures need good healthy food more than we do. Their smaller bodies are more quickly affected by chemicals that wouldn't harm us. Live with the insects or donÕt live with horned lizards, and a lot of other smaller critters we donÕt see so much anymore or even think about.
Fire ants are a problem. Be selective. Don't just scatter fire ant bait around if you have harvester ants. You'll kill them both. Then the fire ants will move back in. You'll have fire ants and no harvesters. Put out the bait so the harvesters don't get it first. Stay and watch. You will have to sweep the bait back up when the harvesters find it. They're good at finding it and can move fast.
I do wish there were easier answers. Many people ask if we can't just breed them. The point is where would you put them? Into an existing horny toad population, thus making them stretch the food resources thinner? Or in a place with no horned toads where they may die because there was a reason there were none there? No, the best early steps we can take are to help them out by leaving habitat alone, creating more habitat, and developing a pesticide program that keeps their needs in mind.
by Lee Stone, HLCS President, Phrynosomatics, December 1993
I promised in my last article to address the issue of what each of us can do to DIRECTLY BENEFIT the horned lizard species in our areas. My comments are extrapolations based on observation and deduction. Scientists will rightly say there is no hard evidence: no experiments have been conducted for years to absolutely corroborate the assumptions given here. But HLCS has been criticized for holding back, for waiting for the scientists' conclusions.
The National Board of Directors has also found it difficult to summarize our findings for another reason: for fear of sounding critical of the very people who may care the most and whose help is needed the most – the private landowner. That is not our intention. We would be criticizing ourselves.
Certain actions taken by many of us – over the years and even today – have and continue to have devastating effects on horned lizards. These activities are usually based on an economic need. And the people involved are usually caring people for whom the actions seem necessary. Often other forces are at work. For example, farmers and ranchers may be following the best advice of professional consultants, such as the Texas Department of Agriculture, or the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, or the Soil Conservation Service, regarding best management practices for maximum crop yield or cattle production. They may be taking part in government programs to convert to improved pastures. Reliance on pesticides still is reality for many producers. Many of these same organizations also offer programs to help wildlife and conserve soil and water resources. Whether they are heeded depends on the individual landowner. These things having been said, read on.
Harmful Activity #1: Conversion of native pasture land to improved pasture or to cropland.
Horny toads hibernate under the ground during the winter. They lay their eggs underground. They can bury themselves and return again, but they cannot return to the surface when they are upside down and belly up under several inches of overturned sod. Horny toad young are especially weak, small and vulnerable. Horny toad eggs seldom survive the plow: They are broken, overheated by sun or exposed to predators. Even if some survive the plowing, the most desirable "improved" (aka exotic) grasses form mats, rather than bunches. See the next activity for the problem with this.
Harmful Activity #2: Replacing native vegetation and bare spots in residential yards with thick grass lawns.
Horned lizards are limited (by the very shape which we love so much) to making their living on the flat ground, not in trees or shrubs. On the ground, they move best when not impeded by vegetation. The native bunch grasses allow little animals to form runways around the bunches and still provide cover. Bermuda grass and St. Augustine grass, for example, are totally inappropriate for horned lizard habitat. These grasses form thick mats, prohibiting the lizards from easy passage across or under the grass runners. Horned toads, especially the young ones, become easy targets for cats, dogs, and large birds.
Harmful Activity #3: Using pesticides to kill insects, including fire ants, in your pastures and lawns.
Horned lizards prefer to eat, and are specialized for eating, the big harvester ants. These ants form large nests, often 3 to 6 feet across. The nest may be flat or conical, and are usually cleared of most vegetation.
There is usually only one entry hole. And the ants forage along little highways which they have cleared of vegetation. The ants may be all red, or red and black, or all black, depending on which species you have in your area. Horned lizards prefer to hunt by waiting along the side of the ant highways, licking up one ant at a time. Each lizard may need to forage near several ant nests to get enough food.
Kill these ants and you do great harm to your horny toads. They simply aren't built to chase down insects like ordinary lizards do. Their diets will be poorer and their health may be affected. Horned lizards do not like being swarmed by fire ants any more than you do.
It is important to remember that to sustain the Horned Lizard, we must also sustain what it eats, the principal of which is harvester ants (red ants). Seed produced by native grasses is an important food source for the ants. Many hybrid bermudas and some other turf grasses fail to make seed and should be avoided.
Harmful Activity #4: Taking Horned Lizards as pets or for sale.
How many of us collected horned lizards as pets, gave or traded them to friends, or actually took part in the pet trade that shipped literally thousands of them out of the state (Texas) to their deaths? A lot of us. Don't do it anymore. When you see one, don't you or your children take it home. Leave it and count your blessings.
"Good" Activities
If you are a rancher with native pasture, keeping it that way helps. Maybe you haven't seen horny toads in a long while, but they could very likely still be there.
If you are considering converting native pasture to dry land crops, we'd urge you to stay with ranching, if you want horny toads to share your life. Or if you do convert, leave large wildlife buffers. Even small buffers help. We know of a handful of horny toads that lived in an unplowed swale in a crop field, until the farmer plowed up the swale, too.
If you are willing to convert some cultivated land back into native pasture, do so. Talk to your local Soil Conservation Service people about this. If you don't have wildlife buffers now, create some.
On the pesticide issue, think of the balance of nature: Horny toads need to eat harvester ants. Little creatures need good healthy food more than we do. Their smaller bodies are more quickly affected by chemicals that wouldn't harm us. Live with the insects or donÕt live with horned lizards, and a lot of other smaller critters we donÕt see so much anymore or even think about.
Fire ants are a problem. Be selective. Don't just scatter fire ant bait around if you have harvester ants. You'll kill them both. Then the fire ants will move back in. You'll have fire ants and no harvesters. Put out the bait so the harvesters don't get it first. Stay and watch. You will have to sweep the bait back up when the harvesters find it. They're good at finding it and can move fast.
I do wish there were easier answers. Many people ask if we can't just breed them. The point is where would you put them? Into an existing horny toad population, thus making them stretch the food resources thinner? Or in a place with no horned toads where they may die because there was a reason there were none there? No, the best early steps we can take are to help them out by leaving habitat alone, creating more habitat, and developing a pesticide program that keeps their needs in mind.
