Range in California: Red
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Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
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Adult, San Diego County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult, San Diego County |
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Adult male, San Diego County |
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Adult male with adult female, from lava fields in San Bernardino County
© Patrick Briggs |
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Adult, Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County © Todd Battey |
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Adult male in a typical pose on top of a large rock pile, San Diego County |
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Adult male in typical basking poisition, Imperial County |
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A threatened Chuckwalla typically runs into a crack in a rock and inflates itself with air, making it difficult for a predator to pull him out. The tool shown above - a sharpened stone attached to a stick - was used by Native Americans to puncture the skin of an inflated Chuckwalla in order to deflate it, then pull the deflated lizard from the crack. The Chuckwalla was later cooked and eaten.
Courtesy of the Death Valley National Park Visitor Center. |
Adult, Inyo County |
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Todd Battey took these pictures in the Coso Range in southern Inyo County, an area known for its extensive Native American pictographs by the Piute tribe.
The large rock contains paintings of deer and bighorn sheep on one side, and human-like forms on the other, including what looks to be a large lizard (the painting is 1.5 feet long) which is certainly a Chuckwalla, considering the importance of this large lizard to these desert inhabitants. |
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Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, Imperial County |
Habitat, San Diego County |
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Habitat, San Bernardino County, with a distant Chuckwalla sitting on top of the rock pile in the center of the picture.
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Habitat, Riverside County |
Artificial riprap habitat, Imperial County
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Short Videos |
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A Chuckwalla emerges from its crack and does a territorial push-up display. |
From a wide view of its habtat, we zoom in on a Chuckwalla high on top of a rock. |
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| Description |
| Size |
| 5 - 9 inches long from snout to vent (12.7 - 22.8 cm). (Stebbins 2003) The second largest lizard native to the United States (after the Gila Monster). |
| Appearance |
A large, flat-bodied lizard with a large rounded belly, and a wide-based blunt-tipped tail. The neck and sides of the body are covered with loose folds of skin. Scales are small and granular. Tail will regenerate if detached. Males have enlarged femoral pores.
Color can be black, reddish, gray, brown, yellow, or tan. Several color patterns occur. Color changes with age and varies with the color of the habitat. Some individuals have red torsos. Males have dark, usually black, head, chest, and limbs, with red, black, or yellowish backs. Sometimes the dark coloring is covered with light spots and flecks. The tail and sides are light gray or cream, sometimes reddish. The body and tail of young chuckwallas are more prominently banded with dark and yellow coloring. Females usually retain some of the juvenile body and tail banding. |
| Behavior & Natural History |
Diurnal. Rock-dwelling, sheltering in rock crevices or under rocks. Rocks, especially large outcrops and boulder piles, are used for basking. Chuckwallas are often seen in the morning basking on a large rock pile. After basking, they leave the rocks to forage for food.
Most active from spring through fall, remaining inactive in deep rock crevices during the cold of winter, but may be active all year in warmer areas. Also retreats into rock crevices during extreme heat.
When disturbed, a chukwalla will retreat into a rock crevice and inflate with air to enlarge the body, tightly wedging it in the crack, and making extraction difficult to impossible. Capable of biting hard. |
| Diet |
| Eats a variety of vegetation, especially creosote flowers, leaves, fruit, and occasionally insects. |
| Reproduction |
| Breeds from April to June. 5 -16 eggs are laid from June to August. Females may only lay eggs every two or three years. |
| Range |
| Widely distributed throughout the Mojave and Colorado deserts in California, from the desert slopes of the mountains, north through the Owens Valley and east to the Colorado River. Ranges south into Baja California, and east into southern Nevada and Utah, through eastern Arizona and south into Sonora, Mexico. Sea level to around 6,000 ft. (1,800 m). |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits rocky flats and hillsides, lava flows, and large outcrops in the California Mojave and Colorado deserts. Creosote bush is found throughout most of its range.
Although primarily associated with natural rock piles, Chuckwallas have also been observed inhabiting atypical places such as burrows in dirt, piles of railroad ties, and artificial rip rap. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
| In 1998 Hollingsworth (Herpetological Monographs 12: 38-191) changed the name from S. obesus to S. ater. The name S. obesus is still preferred by many researchers. Look at this CNAH page to read about some of the controversy. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Iguanidae |
Iguanian Lizards |
| Genus |
Sauromalus |
Chuckwallas |
Species
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ater |
Common Chuckwalla |
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Original Description |
Sauromalus - Dumeril, 1856 - Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, Vol. 8, p. 535
Sauromalus obesus - Baird, 1858 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 10, p. 253
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Sauromalus - Greek - sauros - lizard and homalos - level or flat - refers to the ability to flatten its body
ater - ?
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Sauromalus obesus - Chuckwalla
Formerly called Sauromalus obesus obesus - Western Chuckwalla
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Related or Similar California Lizards |
None. Sometimes confused for Gila Monsters, but the differences are obvious on close inspection.
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This common species is on the Special Animals List for some mysterious reason. There are no indications from the list that it is threatened in any way. In 2007, this lizard was legally collectable with a license.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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None |
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