The Gila (HEE-la) is the largest venomous lizard native to the United States. They are named after the Arizona Gila River Basin, where they were first discovered. The Gila Monster lives in scrubland, succulent desert, and oak woodland. Though Gila Monster is a desert animal, it prefers to live close to water resources. Their habitat includes humidity supporting microclimate, hence they prefer underground burrows and thickets. They shelter in caves, crevices, and thickets in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. Sonora, Arizona, parts of California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.
Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum) are heavy-bodied lizards covered with beadlike scales, called osteoderms, that are black and yellow or pink covering all but their belly. The color patterns on their skin help them camouflage under vegetation in the desert. Their bulky bodies, slow-moving stride, thick forked tongue, and snorting hisses reinforce the name Gila monster. Gila Monsters grow to weigh 1.8 kg and a length including the tail of up to 50 cm.
Gila monsters need high-protein food, but they cannot chase fast-moving prey like other meat-eaters. As carnivores, Gila monsters do not have very good eyesight; when they hunt, they use their senses of taste and smell. To track prey, the Gila monster flicks its forked tongue out to pick up scent particles in the air. These lizards are not very fast, so they need to sneak up on prey and bite them before they get away. Their prey includes birds’ eggs and nestlings, rodents, frogs, lizards, insects, centipedes, and worms, they may also eat carrion. It can eat almost a third of its body weight in one meal. The giant Gila Monster does not chew its food but directly swallows it. The monster’s venomous saliva may be more useful as a defense against predators rather than for hunting because most of the lizard’s prey is small enough to be subdued by the strength of the bite.
A Gila monster bite is painful to humans, but it rarely causes death. The bite of a Gila monster is very strong, and the lizard may not loosen its grip for several seconds. Gila monsters tend to avoid humans and other large wildlife. To warn off potential predators, they open their mouths very wide and hiss.
Although these tough "monsters" are often thought of as being practically predator-free, an assortment of animals is suspected of sometimes hunting them. These animals include foxes, mountain lions, coyotes, and birds of prey.
They are diurnal but most active in the morning. They spend about 95 percent of their time underground and emerge only to hunt for food or to take a sunbathe. They store fat both in their tails and their bodies. Gila Monsters can consume all the calories they need for a year in three or four large meals.
Gila Monsters are solitary animals. These reptiles live on their own except during mating. They live with other dessert animals in their habitat preying on one another.
The Gila Monster lives from 20-30 years in the wild. Brumation, also known as one of the hibernation processes of cold-blooded animals, helps them regulate their body temperature to survive harsh climates. They shed their skin like other reptiles, but the female sheds all of its skin a fortnight before laying the eggs.
Gila monsters seem to have a loose social structure and occasionally share shelters. Males compete for mates by engaging in carefully choreographed wrestling matches, in which the biggest and strongest wins.
They attain sexual maturity at four years of age. Breeding season for Gila monsters is usually in early summer. The male makes the first move, and if rejected the female bites the male and chases it away. Otherwise, the pair go into their shelter. The female digs a hole lays a clutch of large, leathery, oval-shaped eggs in the hole, and covers them. The eggs are not buried very deep, so the heat of the sun incubates them. A female lays a clutch of about six to thirteen eggs. The eggs are about 6.3 cm long and weigh about 40 grams. About four months later, the baby Gila monsters break out of their eggs and crawl to the surface. They are only a few inches long but look like miniature adults with more vivid coloring. The hatchlings are ready to begin life on their own.
The Gila monster has one of the worst reputations in the reptile world. This lizard is often feared and has been described as frightful and repulsive, especially in local folklore. It has been accused of many things, such as spitting venom, leaping several feet in the air to attack, stinging with its tongue, and killing people with gusts of poisonous breath.
In 1952, the Gila monster became the first venomous animal to be given legal protection. According to the IUCN Red List, Gila Monster's status is near threatened. With many predators, human encroachment in their habitats, their numbers have reduced.
#WildLife #SonoranDesert #VenomousLizard
26 ноя 2021
