Pacific Northwest
Reptiles & Amphibians
Click on a picture for a larger view
Pygmy Short-horned Lizard - Phrynosoma douglasii
(Bell, 1829)
Related or Similar Northwest Lizards:
Northern Desert Horned Lizard
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| Adult in hunting stance, Kittitas County, Washington | Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | ||
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| Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | |
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| Juvenile, Kittitas County, Washington. This lizard's color matches the soil perfectly allowing it to avoid observation when it remains still. | |||
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| Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | Adult from dark lava rock habitat, Lake County, Oregon. © Gary Nafis, specimen courtesy of Richard Hoyer |
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| Juvenile, Kittitas County, Washington | Adult, Kittitas County, Washington The horns are small and inconspicuous |
Adult, Kittitas County, Washington | |
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| Juvenile next to a U.S. ten cent coin. Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman The dime is .705 inches in diameter (17.91 mm) which makes the body of this lizard, excluding the tail, approx. one inch long (25 mm). |
Adult, Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman |
Adult in habitat Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman |
Adult, Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman |
| Habitat | |||
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| Habitat, Spring, 2150 ft., Kittitas County, Washington |
Habitat, Spring, 2150 ft., Kittitas County, Washington |
Habitat, Spring, Kittitas County, Washington |
Habitat, Spring Kittitas County, Washington |
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| Habitat, Lake County, Oregon |
Habitat, late Summer, Kittitas County, Washington |
Habitat, Fall, Kittitas County, Washington | Habitat, Fall, Kittitas County, Washington |
| Short Videos | |||
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| On a sunny June day a small adult Pygmy Short-horned Lizard let me follow it around closely as it searched for food, running from one slightly-elevated perch to another, then raising up on all fours and cocking its head from side to side to scan for ants. When an ant was spotted, the lizard quickly ran to it, opened its mouth, and grabbed it with its big sticky tongue. In this video I have edited together several short feeding instances, with most of the running around, searching and waiting for ants to appear removed. | More views of the same Pygmy Short-horned Lizard on the left hunting, feeding on ants, and trying to catch flying bugs. | More views of the same Pygmy Short-horned Lizard on the left running from place to place hunting and doing what looks like tasting or smelling the ground. | Every time I picked up a tiny pygmy short-horned lizard and set it down to try to film it in motion, it ran away quickly then stopped only a few feet away, where it remained still until I went to pick it up again, even though there were small bushes nearby that it could have run into to hide. The lizard was not relying on speed to escape, it was relying on its ability to blend in quickly with the background, expecting that I would not see it. |
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| Several views of a tiny juvenile pygmy short-horned lizard in the sagebrush desert of central Washington, beginning with a zoom in that shows how hard it is to see when it is sitting still on the ground. | Short video of an adult in Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman | Short video of an adult in Linn County, Oregon © Marcus Rehrman | |
Northwest Reptiles and Amphibians
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