I read an article in the February issue of National Geographic about horned lizards in Texas. Their populations are being decimated, largely due to habitat loss and invasive predators. Most people probably think if horned lizards as species of the desert southwest. However, there is a species of horned lizard native to North Dakota, as are a couple other close relatives.
I suspect that most North Dakotans probably first learned of them as horned toads. They are lizards (reptiles) as opposed to toads, which are amphibians. They were a common sight in pet stores when I was a kid in the 1950s and into the 1960s. I cannot recall any of my friends having one, but apparently the trapping of wild horned toads for the pet market was big business. By 1967, the state of Texas passed legislation to protect them from the pet trade. Other states probably followed. By the 1970s they were hard to find in most pet stores.
There are several species of horned lizards, and the greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) may be found in the North Dakota badlands. They are around 3-4 inches or so long with a rather broad and flattened body and short tail. Their skin is grayish to brownish with lots of short spiny scales, including rather conspicuous protrusions or “horns” on the back of the head.
The preferred habitat for short-horned lizards in the badlands is sandy, gravely, or rocky sparsely vegetated areas where they feed on spiders and insects such as ants, beetles, and grasshoppers. They can move fast when disturbed, so sightings are often just a quick glance as they scurry across the ground, and their camouflaging coloration gives them the ability to seemingly disappear amongst the sparse vegetation.
The badlands are also home to the sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciousus). As the name implies, their habitat is associated with sagebrush on gravely or sandy soils. The other species of lizard in North Dakota is the northern prairie skink (Plestiodon septentrionalis) which may be found in the eastern border counties and perhaps a few adjacent counties.
