Posted: 5/22/2005 7:57:11 PM EDT
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I was on my way to the desert to zero my new Sharps 45-90 and I saw this lizzard sitting on a rock about four feet off the forest service jeep trail I was on. The pic doesn't do the critter justice, he was almost irridescent! I stopped my truck and took this picture (he let me get within three feet before he bolted). He/it was about 10" nose-to-tail and about three inches tall. Any herpatologists here know what the official name for this critter is???? 
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Looks like a collared lizard. Google "Crotaphytus collaris". See coloherp.org/geo/species/specrco.php  BTW - Nice photo, AZ_Sky! |
Right!  You are exactly the kind of person that I despise most. "Oh look, it's an animal. Let's kill it. Won't that be entertaining...." In 1680 on the island of Mauritius the very last Dodo bird on the face of the earth was clubbed to death by Dutchman who was, no doubt very much like you. Your's is exaclty the type of attitude that allows the anti-hunting, anti-gun rights crowd to thrive like they have. I would call you a water headed retard but that would be a very profound insult to water headed retards. You are much more stupid than a retard because you are stupid on purpose. |
Or send it to the AZG&F Department. They publish a magazine Arizona Wildlife Views, that may want to use it in a future volume. I subscribe to AWV and it is a very good publication filled with very well written articles on AZ history, wildlife, hunting & fishing reports. If you live in AZ and are even mildly interested in it's wildlife I recommend buying a subscription. |
So does that mean we're not getting the pic?  Digital |
Someone always has to pick on the Dutch  
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Clearly someone has been reading Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See recently. (Fantastic book, especially if you can get one of the earlier "trade paperback" versions -- the current revision has some of the funnier bits deleted in the name of political correctness.) |
Yes and here's some more. When I was growing up in Rural MO late 60's through the early 80's a good percentage of my family's income came from Commercial Fishing, Hunting and Trapping along the Mississippi River. As I stated in a thread on this board ealier today. Up to that point in time the only coyote I had ever seen was chasing a Roadrunner in Warner Brothers Cartoons. Today I read a post on the Hometown/Ohio board in which someone said they saw a coyote on their way to work. That is some pretty amazing shit. Coyotes used to just be in AZ, Southern CA, Southern parts of Texas and New Mexico but I digress. I've seen some pretty amazing things in the AZ desert. Before it was illegal I trapped in the AZ Desert I trapped there quited successfully but it was a losing proposition. The Anti movement and the European Fur Farms drove the price of trapped furs so far down that eventually trapping was only done as a matter of tradition. Any thought of making a profit from the furs was dashed away. When time permits I still do some predator calling here and there but over the years the opportunities present themselves less and less often. I've called as many as 4 coyote's to one stand. I shot 3 of them. That was a great day. The day I sold their furs for $8.00 a piece wasn't so great. I will always remember this one day. Actually this one moment. I was out for a day of Predator calling in the early winter in the lower desert. It was an abnormally cloudy day and the clouds seem to hold a constant threat of rain. I had set up in one of my favorite spot north of Lake Pleasant under a Palo Verde Tree overlooking a valley that offered a particullary good view. It was a hot muggy day and after calling for about two minutes or so it began to gently rain. I decided to wait it out. If you have ever lived in AZ you know that it never really rains for very long even on rainy days. Eventually it began to rain harder, so there I sat getting increasingly wetter. Then while sitting there watching the valley a movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was a shifting of sand to my left. I looked. Nothing.... So I once again returned my attention to the valley. It happened again. Just on the edge of my peripheral vision a movement. I looked again. This time for a bit longer. Then I saw it. A small portion of the damp sand churned slightly. It did it again and again but this time the force of whatever it was pushing up against the sand severed the adhesive nature of the sand forming a crack on the upward push. For a moment it was still then another upward push opening the crack a bit wider this time but when the pusher stopped the crack in the sand closed again. Then another push and the head of what is commonly called a Sand Lizard appeared out of the crack. It eyes opened slowly as it began to work it's way out of it sandy lair. Having done so it slowly leaned its head against a nearby stone and opened its mouth in order to catch the water that was running down it's side. So yes here is my empirical evidence and anyone who wants to shoot any animal for fun or entertainment can kiss my ass. |
+1 I am sick of people who find killing things/people fun. Hunting is one thing; killing for fun is another. (BTW- I don’t hunt, but I am not opposed to the activity as long as it is used for population control, not elimination.) |
I was crawling up a forest service road enroute to a spot I that like to shoot. This guy was just sitting off the trail. The camera is a Nikon CoolPix 5400, a 5mp camera. I managed to get within 3-4 feet of this guy before he got twitchy. The camera was set for aperature priority default and full optical zoom. |
