Not actually snake related.

Heidi · #1 (**permalink**) 08-06-2005, 03:52 PM

I was walking beside my fence in the backyard and saw a very weird looking lizard on my fence. We have mostly green anoles and 5-lined skinks around here so I was kind of shocked to find something else running around. This was very bumpy brown with horns on its broad head and a short stubby fat almost flat body. So, I looked it up under lizards of N.C. and actually found it on there under Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum). It said it was now found in N.C. because of the pet trade. It also eats ants so I guess it was in the right place

. I also read that they can squirt blood from their eyes when disturbed. This would have been neat to witness but I'd hate to think that my dogs were bothering it so I guess I don't mind not being witness to this. Hopefully it will be smart enough to stay on the other side of the fence where it will more likely be left alone.

JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 08-06-2005, 04:18 PM

Yep...they are in NC now. tennessee too although not well documented there. About a mile or 2 from Bow Waters paper plant in Ettowah, my grandmother dumped a shoebox full in her front yard that she brought back from Texas on her trip to see me for the first time right after I was born out there. 10 years later, I caught one across the road from her house in the cow pasture and that's when I was told about how they got there. Another 5 or 6 years later and I found another couple of them so apparently they have established there. I haven't been back to the old farm in years. All of my grandparents are dead now and I don't really have any family much there. An aunt owns the place but it's pretty grown up and run down now. There is a totally unsearched civil war battleground there and tons of cherokee artifacts laying around...It's a pretty cool old farm to herp at too but ya gotta be careful of the unexploded cannon balls that turn up now and then. Those will get you killed.

Heidi · #3 (**permalink**) 08-06-2005, 04:56 PM

That would be pretty cool to be able to find more. That is one of the things I love about my house. There is pleanty of wildlife from birds to lizards, anoles, etc. There are pleanty of baby anoles running around now and we loved watching the parents mate and wonder when the babies would be around. (Very interesting huh?). We also have the occasional Eastern fence lizard and the kids in the neighborhood love chasing them around the tree. It was so interesting to find something totally different. From what I read also they have a pretty long life span (12+ years in the wild) so I'd love to have a little colony of them around here in the future.

That is so interesting about your grandmother. If they travel far maybe this is one of her babies.

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