Anza-Borrego: In Focus, The Social Lives of Lizards
Date: September, 14
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM PST
Cost: General: $10
ABF Members: $5
Students: Free
Tribal Members / Descendants: Free
Scholarships are available for financial hardship – please email
 Lizards have a wide array of social behaviors, far more than most people realize. Lizards in North America use social displays for courtship, mating, space use — typically male territorial behavior– and even anti-predator behaviors. These displays involve not only color but motion and chemical signals. Like males in many vertebrate species, male lizards can also have different “tactics” for achieving reproductive success. Males practicing these “alternative reproductive tactics” often differ in their signals, including body coloration.
In this webinar, Dr. Diana Hews will provide an overview (and videos!) of some of these interesting behaviors, mainly focusing on lizards of the American southwest (and species in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park). She will highlight some of her research with lizards, which has involved physiology, ecology, and evolution. Along the way, she also will illustrate some of the field methods used to study the behavioral ecology of lizards. Lastly, we will briefly consider how climate change might affect some of these behaviors.