Gila Monster...

[reptilist]

This is my favorite Gila Monster pic....I relocated it from the backyard of a Safford Residence.

[Jerry Feldner]

Excellent shot, Terry. Got any more? (Hint, hint!!)

[Apache Devil]

That is a real beauty. Maybe I will get lucky and see one this coming summer. I just heard from a friend that there is a breeding colony of bearded dragon lizards near Cibola wildlife refuge. Anyone else heard this? If it is true I wonder what kind of impact it will have on the native wildlife. Would they compete with gilas?

[gordon]

If true I doubt they will have much if any impact on the Gilas, however I can see them being a problem for some of the other lizards in the area.

[Jerry Feldner]

Apache devil wrote: ...breeding colony of bearded dragon lizards near Cibola wildlife refuge."

I have never heard anything about that. The AHA (AZ Herp Assn) is supposed to do a reptile survey in Cibola and we have been in contact with rangers and wildlife managers there and we have heard nothing like that.

And AD later asked, "Would they compete with gilas?"

Hardly. They are very different kinds of lizards. Gilas are nest predators and tend to eat eggs, baby birds, baby rodents, etc. Beardies are partly insect eaters and partly herbivorous. Most people I know with Beardies feed them mostly greens and only give them crickets/mealworms about 2x per week. That is for adults. Babies get much more protein. See>>> http://www.anapsid.org/bearded.html

[Cobrakeeper]

When I lived in California at Fort Irwin I had a large male bearded dragon that once ate a full grown tarantula

[Apache Devil]

Geeze, you would think the tarantula would have nailed him, or was the dragon clever enough to kill him before he could bite?

[Cobrakeeper]

it was no contest. The bearded dragon was in a cage the was on the floor with a front facing hatch type lid that I had open and I happened to be messing with a tarantula I had caught earlier in the day. The tarantula was walking in front of the bearded dragons cage and the dragon see it. He eyeballed it for a second then jumped out of his cage quicker than hell and grabbed it up and down it went