How YOU can help

Looking for a roadtrip? Looking for things to keep an eye out for? Or just looking for ways to help contribute to scientific research? Then read on.

I am sometimes asked, 'how can I help?' This is an important, but difficult question to answer. Below are some project ideas that I have developed that attempt to harness the power of the iNaturalist observer community. Feel free to contribute observations that help our understanding of Side-Blotched Lizards using the ideas below.

A few caveats. As always, be sure you respect private property rights whereever you observer and do not catch or collect animals unless you have permission to do so. If you observe on private property it is probably best to obscure your coordinates and to seek permission before posting.

1) Seasonal activity of Side-Blotched Lizards. Uta are small generalist lizards that are often active on what I call the 'shoulders' of the season. That is, they are often active very early in the season or very late. As such, observations at times of the year that seem less optimal are sometimes hard to come by. This is because researchers at an academic institution might not be able to get out to observe these lizards early in the spring or later in the fall due to other commitments, such as teaching.

Any observations that you add from September through March each year, regardless of where they occur, are likely to be valuable additions to our understanding, especially as activity profiles of species are altered by ongoing climate change. Recently I have begun using remote camera traps on timelapse setting at crevices I know to be places where lizards overwinter to collect data on winter activity. Moreover, I had the opportunity to spend time in Big Bend National Park a few winters ago and found Uta active nearly every week of the year.

So, even if you think it's not good weather for lizards, as long as it is sunny and above 50 °F (10 °C) there are usually Side-Blotched Lizards out basking. Look for them along south-facing washes, at the base of boulder on the sunny side, or places that are going to get good exposure to the sun all winter long, especially if there is a known population in that area. Over time we should be able to amass a dataset of activity times and places in different seasons and times of day that will give us a good perspective on these little lizard.

2) Mating behavior. Squamate reptiles have paired penile organs (called hemipenes) they store in the base of their tails. This is one way to distinguish males from females (males have a bulge in the base of their tail while females have a more even split). I did a lab experiment once where I tried to determine if males have a 'handedness' for their use of left vs. right hemipene. However, I didn't have enough observations of that in the lab to detect any difference. Enter iNaturalist where people sometimes post pictures of copulating lizards. I am amassing a dataset of copulating Uta observations in hopes of one day having enough data to tell if hemipene preference is random or lateralized (is there a preference). So, any pictures you contribute of copulating Uta are part of my database and are most welcomed.

3) Sub-specific contact zones. There are a number of species and subspecies of Uta that are most easily described based on geographic range. That's because the genetics of these animals is still poorly understood. The last taxonomic revision of the genus was attempted back in the early 1970's and I've helped several colleagues collect tissues for DNA analyses over the years even though that's never been my main focus. However, recently this question has become more interesting and important as I've sampled some of the areas that are genetic contact zones between different subspecies of the main species of Uta (U. stansburiana). Part of what I've tried to do is collect good quality photographs of animals to go along with tissue samples so as to link the eventual genetic lineages with visual cues for distinguishing these lineages...no easy task I've discovered. Hence, any observations you make in those contact zones are especially valuable as additional information as to the visual differences between genetic lineages. So where are these contact zones? Based on past research and my own observations (most of which are already added to iNat) the main contact zones are described below.

Uta stansburiana elegans—U. s. nevadensis. Uta stansburiana elegans occurs throughout the Mojave Desert and gives way to Uta stansburiana nevadensis as that desert transitions into the Basin and Range to the north. This contact zone is best studied in the Owens Valley of California and seems to have a break point somewhere around Bishop, CA. Uta stansburiana elegans comes up the valley and Uta stansburiana nevadensis crosses Montgomery Pass in Nevada to come down the upper reaches of the valley. Between an area from Lone Pine, CA north to just north of Bishop, CA, I can't tell the two subspecies apart visually. Hence any observations in the Alabama Hills or in the vicinity of Independence, Big Pine, or Bishop are quite informative even if they are vague with respect to subspecific identity (I usually just call these Uta stansburiana on iNat). However, this zone of contact appears to repeat east of the White Mountains and again along the Extraterrestrial Highway from Crystal Springs to Tonopah. Visually, it looks like Uta stansburiana elegans reaches north as far as Stonewall Pass on Hwy 95 and also appears to cross the low pass between the Inyo and White Mountains into the valley around Silver Peak, but doesn't quite reach as far north as Tonopah, so any observations in these areas are likely in the contact zone.

Uta stansburiana elegans—U. s. uniformis. Uta stansburiana elegans appears to follow the Colorado River up as far as the Grand Canyon before giving way to Uta stansburiana uniformis up on the Colorado Plateau. Visually, the animals in Grand Canyon National Park all appear to be intermediate between these two subspecies making the park itself the contact zone. However, it could be that elegans penetrates along the low elevations with uniformis restricted to the higher elevations, so any observations between Hurricane, UT and Page, AZ are possibly in the contact zone.

Uta stansburiana elegans—U. s. stejnegeri. Two of the better clades of Uta stansburiana appear to be the western (elegans) and eastern stejnegeri forms. While the other contact zones may represent recent post-glacial expansion, this one seems to be an older, deeper genetic split with the Cochise Filter Barrier slowing gene flow between the subspecies. Uta stansburiana elegans more obviously occurs west of the Tucson area and anywhere SW of the Mogollon Rim, but east of the Mescal Mountains things start to get interesting visually. Along the Gila River east of the Needles Eye Wilderness to the AZ-NM border appears to be part of the contact zone between these two subspecies. Usually the barrier is somewhere around the Chiricahua Mountains, but recent work in this area makes me think that Uta stansburiana stejnegeri may actually extend down the Gila River as far as the Mescal Mountains. Hence, any observations in the eastern third of AZ are valuable. However, one way I'm using to tell these apart is the striping in front of and above the blotch. So, photos here that show the blotch clearly (especially the front and top edges) are the most valuable contributions.

Uta stansburiana elegans—U. s. stansburiana. This is one of the contact zones I am less certain about. As one drives along I-15 from St. George toward Cedar City one passes through a narrow area through which Ash Creek drains off part of the Bonneville Basin to the north. This area seems to be a barrier to gene flow that gave rise to Uta stansburiana stansburiana that occurs throughout the Bonneville Basin. However, along the north-south running valleys northwest of the Pine Valley Mountains are areas where the Mojave gives way to the Bonneville Basin. In there somewhere is a contact zone between these two subspecies, though I am not certain where or how extensive the contact zone is, so any observations along the UT-NV border from St. George to Ely are valuable additions. I hope to sample here in coming years, so I should be able to narrow down the zones of interest someday.

Uta stansburiana elegans—U. s. taylori. This is another of the contact zones I am very uncertain about. More specifically, I am not even sure that Uta stansburiana taylori is a thing based on my reading of the original description. Past researchers who did recognize this subspecies placed it as occurring on several of the islands in the Gulf of California (Isla Angel de la Guarda, Tiburón) as well as along the coast in Sonora, Mexico, but there is little understanding of where it might occur or come into contact with elegans to the north.

Some of the contact zone above are easy to get to and would make for great road trips through the deserts of the southwestern U.S. My personal strategy would be to sample every 20 km or so and to try to get good pictures of the dorsal and lateral patterns as these are going to have the most information visually. If you want additional suggestions about where to look, feel free to message me.
—Pete Zani

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Posted on March 6, 2024 06:33 PM by petezani