I've just always been an outdoorsy person, and always around the San Gabriel mountains. I'd love to work for the forest service...if the pay was OK. I get the impression it's not. At bottom are a couple pictures of one I rescued from Azusa Canyon Rd and moved to the roadside that will give you an idea of what one who hasn't lost it's tail looks like, and the normal length. Most of the lizards you will see you wont probably be able to catch, but Alligator lizards are among the catchable ones because they don't run in the same way. They behave more like snakes in that they slither when they move, and flick their tongue. A real herpetologist can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure it's an example of convergent evolution....where an animal takes one evolutionary path (lizard), then starts to evolve to be very similar to something else (a snake...notice the longer than usual body for a lizard, and short stubby legs). IIRC there is more than one example of lizards in California that have taken this path....completely lost their legs Some have evolved even further and have spent so much time under ground that they've lost much of function of their eyes as well. We used to catch
THESE out in Cabezon.
(Warning: these pictures are VERY large)
Alligator Lizard 1 Alligator Lizard 2My real lizard picture conquest is
this one - a Collared lizard. Admittedly it's not from Wrightwood...it's in Joshua Tree...but it's a rare (IMO), large-ish and interesting looking lizard that was nice enough to stand still for me while I clicked away. Just thought I'd share it while we were tossing up lizard pictures
