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Several species of collared lizards in the genus Crotaphytus inhabit the warm regions of western North America; this one is the eastern collared lizard, C. collaris (another page shows the Great Basin collared lizard, C. bicinctores). All species of collared lizards are large, fast (they can run on their hind legs at high speed), colorful, and alert. They feed on smaller lizards and invertebrates, watching from rocks or other lookout points. Eastern collared lizards vary quite a bit in adult coloration; these Kansas specimens are much less brightly marked than those in Oklahoma. Somewhat alarmingly, the red shoulder mark on the adult male (above left) is not pigmentation: it is a dense population of chiggers (small blood-sucking insects) that the lizard presumably is unable to remove. The animal in the bottom image is issuing me an open-mouth threat display. All these photos were taken on the Konza Prairie in northeastern Kansas. |
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