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| The Gila Monster, Heloderma
suspectum, ranges from extreme southwest Utah to southern
Sonora and northern Sinaloa in Mexico; extreme southwest New
Mexico to southern Nevada and just into California. The northern
subspecies is the Banded Gila Monster and the southern subspecies
is the Reticulated Gila Monster (see map). The Gila Monster
is more common in the wetter, rockier paloverde-sequaro desert
scrub. They also seem to prefer rocky foothills and avoid
open flats and agricultural areas. |
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The Gila monster is heavily
built and moves slowly on four short legs, dragging a thick, short,
blunt tail. The adult lizard is between 18 and 24 inches in length
with an often strikingly colored body—black with numerous beads,
or tubercles, of pink, orange, yellow, or white; the black head
is marbled with pink. The tongue is forked, broad, and flat. |
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Notice the intricate bead-like appearance |
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Gila monsters eat mostly small
rodents, juvenile birds, and bird and reptile eggs. They are active
mainly at night and track down prey by using their tongue to pick
up scent particles on the sand. |
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When Gila Monsters
are active, they eat all they can and store the surplus as fat in
their tail Gila Monsters can survive for months without food, living
off the fat in their tail! |
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During the colder winter months,
the Gila Monster stays in an underground burrow. |
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Breeding season
for Gila Monsters is in July. The eggs are laid a few weeks later
in a hole dug by the female and covered with sand. Clutch size ranges
from 3 - 15 oval, leathery eggs. incubation takes from 28 - 30 days.
The young are 3.5 - 4.5 inches long and reach adult size in 1 -
3 years. |
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Generally sluggish
and exhibiting a benign disposition, it is easy to dismiss this
large lizard as harmless. It, nonetheless, must be treated with
caution. It can bite quickly and hold on tenaciously. The bite of
the Gila Monster, while not considered lethal, is very painful and
should be considered a medical emergency. Rather than injecting
venom through hollow fangs like venomous snakes, Gilas have enlarged,
grooved teeth in their lower jaw. When they bite, their powerful
jaws chew the venom in through capillary action along the grooves
in these teeth. Gila monster venom is about as toxic as that of
a western diamondback rattlesnake. However, a relatively small amount
of venom is introduced in a Gila bite.. |
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Gibbons do not
construct sleeping nests but show a preference for specific ‘sleeping
trees’ where no other family group is tolerated. They sleep
sitting erect in trees, huddled together in twos and threes, with
their knees bent up to their chin, hands folded on knees and face
buried between the knees and chest. |
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Gila Monsters
are listed as vulnerable on the RedList for the year 2000. They
are also listed in CITES Appendix II. These beautiful lizards are
threatened by collection for the pet trade, collection for the magical
and mythical powers believed to be associated with the animals,
and habitat destruction due to overgrazing, truck farming, and the
planting of cotton. |
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