Guess what was in my carport the other night?

Heh, yeah the Mexican Beaded Lizard, very good.
I love the different lizards that live in the Sonoran desert, there are so many, and they are all over. From the tougher skinned Desert Iguanas and the Collared lizards, to the fragile leaf toed geckos.
Here are some photos I took.
A 'Horny Toad' and a beautiful whiptail. They should be fullsize if you click on them.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Pretty neat looking guys, there! I babysat my friend's iguana for a couple of months and almost got myself one as a pet. But, I'm more of a fish guy and this is my baby:

 

and some geckos. A Leaf Toed Gecko, which is the most common gecko I see, and a very rare Western Banded Gecko, which I have only seen twice in my life, the time I took these photos being one. It looks like he is smiling in some of the photos.

Most geckos don't have eyelids, and they use their tongue to keep their eyes moist. I think the Western Banded Gecko is one of the rare ones with eyelids.

 

That is a very pretty fish. Beautiful, what type of fish is he/she?

 

Plecostomus - He's about 8 years old now. I've had him for 3 years. He's about 14" long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plecostomus

 

I like geckos a lot. I haven't had any as pets but a friend keeps a few of them in a nice large 200 gallon tank. His are pretty tame now and can be taken out of the tank. They'll sit on your chest for hours, quite content to be there.

 

Wow, that's amazing. I really like geckos myself. Never had any as pets either. I had a Green Anole lizard when I was growing up, he would change from green to brown, and was quite friendly.
This time of year here, when the rains come, the baby leaf toed geckos hatch, and we always get several in the house, so I do my best to rescue them from certain death at the hands of a cat, and let them free outside. The cats even had a snake once inside, a very skinny guy, maybe 8 to 10 inches long, but very thin... cute little guy, kinda pinkish, I don't know what type, or how he got in. I let him go outside with only minor injuries, I hope he made it.
But wow, geckos for pets that sit on your chest... that is cool, do you know what type they are? I don't know much about geckos other than the native species in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico.

 

The plecostomus is very cool, yours looks great... 8 year wow.

 

They were day geckos, the most common ones in pet shops. They could be hand fed after a few weeks of them getting comfortable with their owner.

 

Aren't komodo dragons poisonous?

 

They are. Originally it was thought that their bite was poisonous due to the deadly bacteria on their teeth but in 2005 it was discovered that they actually had venom glands in the mouth.

 

Why did it take so long to find the glands!?

 

Would you get close to one of those things?!

I didn't think so.

 

All right. At first I said possum when it dawned on me it was a Gila Monster. I was born in Arizona. I've seen rattlesnakes, even a sidewinder, but I never saw a Gila monster. Thanks a lot. You got my pm.

 

The Mexican beaded lizard, close relative to the Gila.

Also, even though a poisonous gland was discovered in the Komodo, they do have some significantly nasty Salmonella species in and on their bodies, as do most reptiles.

 

Yes, the bacteria in the mouth of the Komodo is quite nasty stuff, I saw an experiment where they put a few drops of some Komodo saliva on a piece of steak and let it sit for a few days... the results were not pretty, the control steak was fine, but the one that got the Komodo juices looked awful....
With Gila Monsters the venom comes from the fangs on the lower jaw. Unlike a rattlesnake which injects it's venom like a hypodermic syringe, the Gila Monster will bite and clamp on, letting the venom come out of the teeth on the lower jaw, and into the wound created by the bite. This is part of why they tend to hold onto whatever they bite. A tourist, I think Dutch, was walking around the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and was foolish enough to point his finger close enough to a wild Gila Monster, for the lizard to bite him. I don't know if he lost the finger or not, last I heard he was trying to sue the Desert Museum.... some people....

 

Got my coins today. Very impressive. I can't stop patting myself on the back for being so smart. Thanks for the great contest!!!

 

Heh, well you did win, and congratulations on that. I'm glad everything was to your liking.

I'll have to think up something very good for my next contest.....