Gila Monsters

 When we moved here, and the wildlife began to reveal itself to us creature by creature, one that we hoped for was the Gila Monster. We knew these big colorful lizards, one of three species of venomous lizards in the world, were found here, but we didn't know where to search for them. They only spend 15 percent of their life above the earth. How could we possibly be looking that way just as they popped up their head? But in fact one day one was walking up the ditch on the left side of the yard, then there was one on the porch. Then we noticed several quail gathered tightly together attentively following something and when we looked at them with the binoculars we could see they were following a Gila Monster.. And that is how it has been since. We don't search for them. In summer they simply present themselves to us when we are not expecting.

They are so tame and slow-moving, and make such wonderful subjects, that we photographed every one we saw. Though they all looked similar, actually each had its own pattern, and we realized that by closely examining each photo we could tell if we were looking at a new one, or the same one we saw yesterday, and with a little work we could decide how many different Gila Monsters we had here.

Well, it wasn't a little work, it was a lot of work, which is why I didn't do it last year, but this year I have finally got down to it. One problem is, the right and left side are completely different from each other, so we have to be careful to photo both halves, and then keep the photos together so we knew they were the same individual. Let me show you how it works.

If you look in the center of the picture on the right side of this Gila you will see a mark that looks like "3." Now look at the same Gila in approximately the same place on its left side, you will see something that looks like a lower case "g." From now on, if you get a good look, you will always be able to recognize this individual.

Let me give another example.

The middle of the right side of the tail has two black "1's" against the orange background, and then at the base of the tail something sort of like the letter "A." Now look at the left side of this same individual. The base of the tail has a black "1." Next out is a black square, and finally a black "?."

We have seen some of these in 2019, 2020, and now again in 2021. And now to gather all our dozens of pictures together to estimate the total number of Gila Monsters found  in our yard. 

Alas, we only seem to have seen these two!