The San Antonio Zoo is partnering with zoo in Miami to raise and release a beloved Texas reptile back into the wild. San Antonio Zoo scientist Andy Gluesenkamp heads the project and loves the little critter.
“The scientific name: Phrygnosoma cornutum. ... Most Texans call them either a horny toad or a horned frog or a horn toad,” Gluesenkamp said. “Those sweet little nicknames, they just show how much people love horned lizards, and that makes me happy.”
Younger Texans or those new to the state may not know that they were plentiful in much of the state 50 years ago, but now they're rarely seen.
“Texas horned lizard has largely disappeared from a good chunk of its range in Texas, which happens to be that part of Texas where about 80% of all Texans live,” he said.
Those two facts are interrelated: where people are present, paving roads, using lawn mowers and weed killers makes the environment exactly the kind that horned lizards can’t survive it. Texans of a certain age look back fondly on their childhood, seeing and catching them, then letting them go.
“So that absence is real. It's felt by a lot of people,” Gluesenkamp said.
The San Antonio Zoo has been mating horned lizards, hatching them, and carefully releasing them to select ranches for nearly seven years. Now, Zoo Miami is helping in that effort.
“We have lots of collaborators on this project, and we're really proud of our friends in Florida,” he said.
Their partnership in Florida is, in a sense, all about the science. “The Texas Horned Lizard, as the name suggests, isn't even native to Florida. This is not a Florida organism,” Gluesenkamp said. “And yet they're so charismatic, the story resonates with people, whether they’re native of Texas or not, or have ever even visited or seen horned lizard in the wild, and that goes for our friends at Zoo Miami.”
The process is complex for both zoos, having to mimic winter, provide ideal gestation conditions, and once the eggs have hatched, to get them ready to be let go. The horned lizards then go from 24-hour observation to life on their own.
“We're getting ready to conduct our fifth release in October. And so far in the previous four releases, we've released 208 horn lizards that we produce in the Center for Conservation and Research at San Antonio Zoo,” he said.
Measuring success rate of those released into the wild is difficult. “One of the reasons why horn lizards still exist on this planet is because they're hard to find. That's their number one superpower ... just avoiding detection,” he said.
Every subsequent visit has provided evidence of horned toads still being there. Scientists worried that severe winter weather might have killed the recently released horned lizards.
@texaspublicradio The San Antonio Zoo is partnering with zoo in Miami to raise and release a beloved Texas reptile back into the wild. San Antonio Zoo scientist Andy Gluesenkamp heads the project and loves the little critter. The San Antonio Zoo has been mating horned lizards, hatching them, and carefully releasing them to select ranches for nearly seven years. Now, Zoo Miami is helping in that effort. The process is complex for both zoos, having to mimic winter, provide ideal gestation conditions, and once the eggs have hatched, to get them ready to be let go. The horned lizards then go from 24-hour observation to life on their own. “We're getting ready to conduct our fifth release in October. And so far in the previous four releases, we've released 208 horn lizards that we produce in the Center for Conservation and Research at San Antonio Zoo,” said San Antonio Zoo scientist Andy Gluesenkamp. Get the whole story at the link in our bio 📹 Courtesy / San Antonio Zoo
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Gluesenkamp thinks the collaboration with Florida will only elevate the effort, and he saw no end to the program.
“We're going to keep doing it as long as we can keep doing it well. And as long as we still have public support,” he said.
He said the project is funded entirely by grants and donations.
More information can be found on the project's website.
