New Additions in 2025

These are some of the new pictures, sounds, and video and major taxonomical changes that I have added to the site in 2025.
Most of these were generously contributed by photographers other than myself. I'm too lazy to list every thing that I add myself, but I try to add all other contributions. The pictures and videos are listed under the month when I added them to the site, not necessarily when they were taken or donated.

The links lead to pages which include thumbnails and other links to the new content. You will have to search the page to find them, but most of them are usually put at the bottom of the gallery of thumbnails of the featured animal.
The most recent additions to the site are on top of the list seen below.
A list of some of the new additions to the site in 2024 can be seen here.



May


Ryan Aberg contributed a great series showing Desert Tortoise courtship and mating, and some nice close-ups of Foothill Yellow-legged Frog eggs and larvae.

Leyna Stemle contributed pictures of some Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamanders she's been studying, and a comparison shot of one with a much larger California Tiger Salamander.

An anonymous photographer sent me a picture to ID of a nice peach albino Pacific Gophersnake found in the yard.

Zach Lim spotted a Diablo Range Gartersnake eating a Foothill Yellow-legged Frog and contributed some pics.

Blaine Mazzetti (baha_blaine on Instagram) contributed pictures of a beauty of a San Diego Banded Gecko, and an unusual black and white shovel-nosed snake, and lots of pictures from Baja California: Peninsula Banded Gecko, San Lucan Leaf-toed Gecko, Cape Spiny-tailed Iguana, Cedros Island Horned Lizard, Cerralvo Island Sator, a Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake with an ocean view, a couple of nice mid-Baja Rosys, Baja California Ratsnake, Banded Sandsnake, San Diego Nightsnake, California Kingsnakes, California Lyresnake, California Black-headed Snake, and Long-nosed Snake.

Joel Germond contributed pictures of a couple Coast Horned Lizards found in coastal dunes.

A woman in L.A. County sent me a picture of a bright orange Great Basin Fence lizard in her yard. I've received several similar pictures over the years, enough to collect them all together to talk about the situation. I know the color has been added, but I've never had proof of what it is and how it got there until this lizard. After I told her that the color was not natural but had been somehow added to the lizard, her son went looking for it to figure out what it was and instead found proof that some prankster had spray-painted the lizard orange and sent me a picture of it.

Risa Okuyama contributed some great underwater videos of breeding Cascades Frogs.

Kevin Lee contributed a short video of a San Joaquin Coachwhip in the Sutter Buttes.

Zach Lim contributed several pictures from the Bay Area: California Red-sided Gartersnake, Northern Rubber Boa, California Kingsnakes, Diablo Range Gartersnake, and Foothill Yellow-legged Frogs.

Yuval Helfman contributed pictures of a Northwestern Skink, a juvenile Pacific Gophersnake, and a Pacific Ring-necked Snake.



April


Archer Barrett contributed pictures of a California Nightsnake found farther west than previously recorded in an area near redwoods in Sonoma County.

Stephen Custance-Baker contributed a picture of a San Diego County Green Anole.

Patrick Frost contributed a picture of an unusual Southern Alligator Lizard that is blue-gray and black in color, probably anerythristic.

Matthias Lemm and Jeff Lemm contributed lots of great pictures of animals photographed on Santa Catalina Island - Southern California Slender Salamander, Amerian Bullfrog, Baja California Treefrog, Southern Alligator Lizard, Northwestern Skink, Side-blotched Lizard, Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, Ring-necked Snake, California Kingsnake (including one eating a Side-blotched Lizard) Gopher Snake, and several pictures of the unusually dark non-striped Two-striped Gartersnakes found on the island.

Khaleo Thompson contributed pictures of a San Diego Banded Gecko with a bright yellow tail, a Peninsular Leaf-Toed Gecko, a brilliant male Granite Spiny Lizard, a very pale blue Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, a Northern Desert Nightsnake, a Desert Threadsnake and a Southwestern Threadsnake, a juvenile Red Diamond Rattlesnake, and a nice white Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake.

Ryan Sikola contributed pictures of a juvenile Western Black-headed Snake from the edge of San Luis Obispo County.

Daniel Kourey contributed pictures of a Central Valley Western Yellow-bellied Racer and of the first Coast Mountain Kingsnake confirmed from San Luis Obispo.

Zach Lim contributed pictures of a Santa Cruz County California Mountain Kingsnake a San Mateo County Northern Rubber Boa, a Santa Cruz Black Salamander, a Pacific Ring-necked Snake, a Western Yellow-bellied Racer, a Common Sharp-tailed Snake, a California Kingsnake, a Santa Cruz Gartersnake, a California Nightsnake, and a California Red-sided Gartersnake.



March


Kenny Elliott contributed a picture of a Coast Mountain Kingsnake found crawling during a prescribed burn in the forest on Mt. San Jacinto.

Ryan Sikola contributed pictures of a rare Bakersfield Legless Lizard, rare because it's from the isolated population on the extreme eastern edge of San Luis Obispo County, west of the small range of the Temblor Legless Lizard.

Larry Leon contributed pictures of a non-native Sonoran Spotted Whiptail from their introduced range in Orange County.

Tom Berto contributed a picture of a Southern Desert Horned Lizard from the Mojave Desert.



February


Cliff Peebles contributed several pictures of Skilton's Skinks, including males in combat, and a California Kingsnake eating a Great Basin Fence Lizard.

Eli Short contributed pictures of another very rare California Snake - the "South Coast" Gartersnake.

Gannon S contributed several pictures and a video of a rare California snake - a Baja California Coachwhip.

Brendan Champlin contributed pictures of a Snapping Turtle he saw in a creek in Concord

Lindsay Marston contributed some great pictures of a swimming Green Sea Turtle in San Diego County waters.

Grayson Sandy contributed a picture of a California Slender Salamander that he found near a salt marsh, which seems unusual as they are not known to be very tolerant of salt water.

I found a way to add Google search back to the website. It should now be available on every page. It's possible some of the searches will come with ads, which is how they make their money, but that's a small price to pay for lightning-fast search. I hope it doesn't fail like the last Google search I installed because it's a lot of time and work to add or remove.



January


I have elevated Sceloporus vandenburgianus to a full species.

I have lumped the two subspecies of Elgaria multicarinata because the taxonomy is too messy to include them now.

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