B)    It is an herbivore.

Unlike other desert reptiles, the Common Chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater)* is strictly herbivorous eating the fruit, leaves, buds and flowers of desert plants. It rarely, if ever, drinks free water, gaining enough from the plants it consumes. Another unique habit of this sizable lizard (growing to a length of 11 to 18 inches) is exhibited when it senses danger: it quickly lodges itself tightly in rock crevices by gulping air and inflating its body, making it nearly impossible to remove.

Some Native American groups of the past sought the meaty chuckwalla as a source of food by taking advantage of the lizard's escape tactic by simply spearing the lizard with a hooked pole, easily removing the animal from it's hiding place.  For other groups, chuckwalla meat was used to feed ceremonial eaglets kept by the tribe.

*Sauromalus ater is the name presently given to all Chuckwallas living in our Southwestern Deserts. All of the former subspecies of S. obesus are now included in the single species, S. ater. (Desert USA)

Photo: Jeffrey G. Sipress                                                                                [back]        [home]

Photo: Joe Bartels                                                                            Photo: Walter Feller