Blunt Nosed Leopard Lizard Recovery Plan (Brent Gambetta)

http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/g.sila.html

Blunt Nosed Leopard Lizard

(Gambelia Sila)

By: Brent Gambetta

Facts

Taxonomy                                                                              Family:            Crotaphytidae

Crotaphytus silus (1980)                                                         Genus:             Gambelia

changed to Gambelia Sila (1993)                                           Size:  Males: up to 14”

Average Life Span:  2yrs (5yrs record)                                            Females: up to 12”

Habitat: Likes to live in areas with underground burrows caused by rodents in grasslands and alkali flats that are semi-arid and lacking vegetation.

Preferred Meal: Mainly Insects (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Moths, Ants, Beetles, and Bees) and occasionally eat other lizards (usually smaller then themselves.) Whichever of these they can find first is what is on the menu.

Brumation: A winter hibernation that results in inactivity due to changes biochemically that lowers blood pressure and respiration rate. Starts in Winter and ends in early April just before reproduction begins.

Breeding: Starts in April and goes until June. Females lay between one and six eggs in a given batch per year which is thought to be based on the body size of the female at that given time. Then two months later the young hatch from the eggs.

http://esrp.csustan.edu/publications/pubhtml.php?doc=sjvrp&file=chapter02K00.html

Distribution: Though the boundaries of which the Blunt Nosed Leopard Lizard are for the most part unknown, historically they have been known to be endemic to the San Joaquin Valley. For the most part they are only found below 800 meters in elevation and tend to hang around the foothills and valley floor. As of this point in time there is no current population that has been recorded or estimated.

Social Behavior: Blunt Nose Leopard Lizards are highly territorial and tend to establish areas that they maintain especially during breeding season.

                                  http://www.flickriver.com/groups/crotaphytus/pool/random/

Predators: There are very many predators of the Blunt Nose Leopard Lizard that are mainly looking to eat them if they happen to come across one another’s paths. These predators vary from whip snakes, gopher snakes, western rattle snakes, king snakes, burring owls, road runners, and California Ground Squirrels. To top it off they also tend to fall victim to mites and nematodes.

Decline: For the most part the major cause of decline is caused by the destruction caused by agricultural practices to the Blunt Nose Leopard Lizards habitat due to pesticide applications, off road vehicles and the harvesting of petroleum and mineral extraction. This threat to destroy their habitats leave them not only without a home but cause fragmentation between habitat areas.

Recovery Plan Summary: The end goal in trying to bring these lizards back from endangerment is focused around the preservation and conservation of the current living habitats that are left for these little fellows. The monitoring of how land is used and being handled is being looked at under constant regulation making sure that things are being done in a way that will not disrupt or worsen the current existing population of Blunt Nose Leopard Lizards while trying to maintain the natural habitat without interference of domestic livestock coming in and eating all of the native vegetation which these lizards like to choose hide themselves in times of cover. As things move forward hopefully the monitoring of agriculture practices and uses will continue to be regulated making sure that things are done in a proper and beneficial way to the surrounding habitat and wildlife that chose to call surrounding area home in the San Joaquin.

                                                                       

References

All information has been gathered from the following websites here are the citations given by these sites

Literature Citation:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1998. Recovery plan for upland species of the San Joaquin Valley, California. Region 1, Portland, OR. 319 pp.

http://www.arkive.org/blunt-nosed-leopard-lizard/gambelia-sila/

http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/g.sila.html

1.      

IUCN Red List (August, 2011)
http://www.iucnredlist.org/

2.       Germano, D.J. and Williams, D.F. (2005) Population ecology of blunt-nosed leopard lizards in high elevation foothill habitat. Journal of Herpetology, 39(1): 1-18.

3.       CaliforniaHerps - Gambelia sila (August, 2011)
http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/g.sila.html

4.       Stebbins, R.C. (2003) A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

5.       U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (1998) Recovery Plan for Upland Species of the San Joaquin Valley, California. Portland, USA. Available at:
http://esrp.csustan.edu/publications/pubhtml.php?doc=sjvrp&file=chapter02K00.html

6.       Germano, D.J. and Williams, D.F. (2007) Ontogenetic and seasonal changes in coloration of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila). The Southwestern Naturalist, 52(1): 46-53.

7.       Montanucci, R.R. (1965) Observations on the San Joaquin leopard lizard, Crotaphytus wislizenii silusStejneger. Herpetologica, 21: 270-283.

8.       Germano, D.J., Smith, P.T. and Tabor, S.P. (2007) Food habits of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila). The Southwestern Naturalist, 52(2): 318-323.

9.       California State University: San Joaquin Valley Endangered Species Recovery Program (August, 2011)
http://esrp.csustan.edu/

13. http://www.arkive.org/blunt-nosed-leopard-lizard/gambelia-sila/

http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/g.sila.html