Research Paper Proposal: What We Can Learn, a Look at Arizona’s Lizards

For the state of Arizona Lizards are no doubt an eye catcher and major attraction, to photographers, hikers and young explorers. in Arizona there is a very great variety sizes and kinds in this desert region what sports four desert biotic communities giving Arizona a unique look into this wide spread and diverse life form we call lizards. Much has been done in recent years with research using lizards from a seemingly miracle drug for diabetics derived from the Gila Monster’s saliva, to insights into local ecological conditions and awesome evolutionary adaptations for survival in some of the world’s most arid inhospitable regions what would be thought tolerable for wildlife. A look into all that can be learned had led many to push for habitat protection and awareness of this scaly and typically small education ambassador.

The Why of My Degree Path: Wildlife & Restoration Ecology

Ever since I can remember I have been infatuated by critters, animals, bugs, lizards and pretty much anything I could observe in my mason-jar terrarium. I admit most of my early observations were while dismembering and killing helpless insects. I soon realized it was much more fun just talking with others about my observations and teaching them what I knew, what eventually lead to my realization of my degree path in wildlife biology.

“What is that? What does it eat? Will it bite?” Were just a few common inquiries from students this child professor. The more strange a critter I found, the more fear people had of it, gave me the most attention from both young and old and I would have a captive audience! Most of the answers I gave I knew from my own observations. Often times, however, I did not know, often times I had to hypothesize and make up the best answer I could for my students. Curiosity would get the best of me however, and I would have to search out answers at the local library. Fully illustrated books regarding lizards, snakes ants and spiders were my exclusive library diet. It came to the point where I was bored with the selection of the local, small town, library had to offer. I moved on to taking pets to sustain fascination. The green iguana was my earliest substantial pet I can remember, I had responsibilities, to find out what it ate and how much it ate. The daily task of cutting up greens and serving it to this scaly green herbivorous responsibility of mine become a little more than I had asked for at times.

Years went by and my childhood fantasy had seemingly come to an end as I realized money needed to be made and I really had no idea that there was a whole world of wildlife biology that people had as careers and what the made a living by. I started my college journey and floated around for a while until I got a part time lab assistant job at the Red Mountain campus of Mesa Community College. I was entertained by the fact they had a pretty good live collection of Arizona reptiles and as I continued to work I came in contact with the biology instructors who had backgrounds in wildlife conservation and research. Once it was made evident there was a degree at Arizona State University what was highly supported by Arizona Game and Fish it was really a choice I had already made as a kid biologist to jump right into the degree path of my dreams!

Tokay Gecko

I got a tokay gecko about a month ago and was pretty sure it was a female. Tokay gecko's are well known for being agressive and not hesitant to bite! I got an adult male tokay the other day from Scottsdale Community College. I had them in seperate tanks until I heard a rather loud squecking noise what is the male tokay mating call! I put them together and they snuggled up to eachother!

Lizard Vivarium

Well, for months now I've been thinking about purchasing or building a large terrarium to house several native lizard species Collard Lizards Long Nosed Leopard Lizards or Chuckwallas. Depending on on how well they get along I wanna get as many different species as I can. Anyway, so I was looking around for ideas to either build or purchase a rather large tank to keep them in and so I stopped by several different Goodwill stores and Pet stores. While I was at Petco on Power and Baseline I saw how they kept their ferrets in a hexagonal tank that was pretty much a 3 foot in all directions it sitting on a stand that had storage. I asked the employee if he knew where they bought their tanks from for the displays. He didn't know... but he told me that the empty tank that was pretty much the same model was for sale!

I checked it out it was a pretty large tank and I wasn't sure if it could fit in my room... it was $200 of which was going to some pet charity. I didn't have the money on me at the time so I waited until I had the extra cash, it took like a month before that happened so I'd stop by every couple weeks to make sure it was still there. I got a dj job and had worked some extra hours at the school and got enough money! First thing the next morning I went and purchased the tank.

And since I had so long to think about getting it I already had a plan on how I was going to design the thing. Since there was a support bar in the center of the terrarium I decided to make a rock pile in the middle to sort of cover it up and yet make the best use of the space in the middle leaving more space around it. I had seen some cool fake rock walls and things on the Internet made out of Styrofoam and grout mix. I really didn't want to carry a bunch of real rocks around in my car and have all that excess weight in the terrarium. So that's what I did, I went dumpster diving and found some Styrofoam pieces in the back of a furniture store. What I started carving down to a more rock-ish shape with a kitchen knife and razor blades. (Be careful kids!)

I realized it was going to be quite a mess so I put a tarp down to try and catch most of the shavings. But ended up just doing it on a table on my back porch. The more I carved the more it started looking like real rocks. I also realized it was going to gain some rock-like aesthetics from the sand treated grout mix I had purchased in a dirt color. What, now that I think about it, I should have bought a grey color to look more rock like, anyhow. After sculpting all my rocks some of which were hallowed out so they could have a cave like function once they were grouted. I hot glued the rocks in a pile with gaps and little bridges in a way to make a lizard happy (Ha!). Then I used this foam spray stuff to fill in the gaps and cracks and also serve as another sort of adhesive.

Now comes the fun part. Made up my sand treated gout mix and started smearing it with my hands all over the foam rocks. This was quite entertaining and very messy so of course I had it on a tarp. It was quite the process making sure every single rack and underside was covered. After like a half hour of this I realized how much easier and efficient it would be if I used a paint brush to evenly distribute the grout on the structure. So much faster. It kinda' looked like a giant pile of doggy doo after I was finished but I was going to add some acrylic paint to give it more rock-like texture.

I then got some acrylic paints and put them in a cheap spray bottle, red grey and black and sprayed splotched layers of the colors to give it a rocky look. After which I sprayed the sealant on the grout what... sealed it. When it dried it was rock hard.

Then I've been adding some plants a off shoot of kriasote bush and brittle bush and triangle bersage and a little pin cushion cacti that somebody had kicked up on a trail I was on. Hopefully they will take root!