Horned Toad Lizards | Nature Adventure

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Biology

Horned Lizards, also known as "horn toad lizards" or “horny toads” is a North American spiny lizard in the Phrynosomatidae family. Their scientific name, Phrynosoma, means "toad-body"; and you can probably see why! These lizards are quickly recognized by their wide, flat bodies covered in spiky horns and a short, frog-like face. Although they might look like toads, they are not related to them at all. These little guys are lizards through and through!

There are around 14 species of horned lizard that can be found in North and Central America, from as far north as British Columbia (in Canada) down to Guatemala. While they typically live in desert areas along the west coast, they are sometimes found as far east as Arkansas and Kansas. No species of horned lizard gets very large, and their round, flat bodies help them camouflage against the rocks as well as increasing their surface area so they can soak up as much sunlight as possible.

These lizards will sometimes dig under the sand by moving their chin and shaking their body until it's covered, hiding with just their eyes above the surface to ambush their prey!

Ecological Importance

The horned lizard's diet mainly consists of ants, including the aggressive harvester ant. These ants have venomous stings and strong mandibles, which they use to bite their predators! They also have little nutritional value, meaning that they're a lot of work for very little reward. Imagine trying to eat a grape that keeps biting you back!

Luckily for us, the horned lizard doesn't seem to mind the challenge. These amazing exterminators will grab the harvester ant with their tongue and pull the ant to the back of their throat. Here, mucus producing organs line the lizard's throat, protecting its insides as thick globs of mucus surround the ant. This makes it unable to bite or escape, and allows the horned lizard to easily swallow its prey whole, without the venom damaging their insides!

So, there is no need to worry about a swarm of stinging harvester ants when there's horned lizards around!

Did you know?

If you live in the American southwest, you might have noticed less horned lizards running around. And you wouldn't be the only one! Texas horned lizards, the largest species of horned lizard in North America, aren't considered threatened or endangered Federally (in other words, they are not considered to be threatened all across America); but in states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona, they're starting to decline more and more each year.

This is worrying, since horned lizards are important for keeping ant populations under control. They are also vital prey animals for predators like hawks, coyotes, roadrunners, snakes, and other lizards. If the horned lizard disappears, we might be overrun with ants, and a lot of other animals would lose an important food source!

While scientists are still not sure why the lizards are disappearing, there are a couple of possible reasons. Invasive red fire ants might be killing too many harvester ants, which the horned lizard eats. Ant pesticides could also be making the lizards sick, and many of them are losing their habitats as we build over their natural environments. In some places, horned lizards might even be caught from the wild and sold as pets, where almost all of them starve in captivity.

As of 2021, research is still being done about how we can save the horned lizards. Scientists all across the American southwest and Mexico are hard at work making sure that we preserve this cool looking lizard, and its home, for many more years!

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