Hiking in the Cerbat Mountains last week, I came across a few examples of this reptile. Although they are called “tree lizards,” they often spend a lot of time on rocks. Tree lizards are found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. This lizard is an excellent climber and it is commonly seen basking and foraging on logs, boulders and trees.
Ornate Tree Lizards are slim, gray-brown, and feature an ornate pattern of thin, dark lines. They eat variety of insects including aphids, beetles, flies, ants, bees, wasps, termites, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets. They also feed on a variety of spiders.
They are a behaviorally complex species. Males are quite territorial, at least during the breeding season; I saw them arch their backs and display their bright yellow and blue colors to each other while I observed them on my hike. The territorial displays also include “push-ups” and extending their brightly colored throat dewlaps.
Ornate Tree Lizards tend to bask in the morning and then shuttle between shade and sun to maintain a fairly constant body temperature. This reptile is relatively short-lived. It matures and produces multiple egg clutch species. Very few individuals live to an age of three or more years.
The species has been used to research the physiological changes in the body during the fight-or-flight response as related to stress and aggressive competition.
It was a neat lizard to encounter in a remote place and made for an enjoyable morning.