Gray Checkered Whiptail

Speedy and agile, this species occurs only near Presidio, TX and in southwestern New Mexico.Finding the gray-checkered whiptail, Aspidoscelis dixoni, out near Presidio (TX) wasn't too difficult. Kenny and I located the (now contested) species in an old roadside dumping ground where amidst the sun-baked boards, house hold unwanteds and bullet riddled car skeletons several gray checkered whiptails had found home. But finding them and photographing them proved to be two very different projects. Photographing a lizard that moves only in instantaneously applied bursts of jet propulsion amidst piles of trash and building debris rife with protruding nails and broken glass was another matter entirely. For our own safety we elected to employ capture and release techniques, Lizard nooses to the rescue! Like many whiptails, this is a hybrid, parthenogenetic (unisexual) species. It is named in honor of the late Dr. James R. Dixon. The species, a member of the confusing Aspidoscelis tesselatus complex, is not recognized by all researchers.

Many whiptail species are identified by the arrangement of the scales on the throat, forelimb, and above the eyes.

Up close and personal with the gray checkered whiptail