Tag: Gila Monsters

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Wild About Monsters

Wild About Monsters: Gila Monster Sunning, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Gila Monster Sunning
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Gila Monster Sensing with Tongue Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Gila Monster Sensing with Tongue
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Wild About Monsters: Gila Monster at Den, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Gila Monster at Den
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Wild About Monsters: Gila Monster Under Sage, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Gila Monster Under Sage
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Wild About Monsters: Gila Monster Up to Size, Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Gila Monster Up to Size
Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

The excitement in her voice could not be more obvious as I answered her call. “Dad, there’s a Gila Monster walking down the middle of my jogging trail right now”. She was only a few minutes away so I ask her to follow it until I could get there. I arrived in time to film it wading through the desert grasses as it made its way back to its den. It’s always a good day when you see a Gila Monster in the wild. Monster sightings are not common in the Southwest corner of Utah even though they are quite abundant in this portion of the Mojave Desert. There’s a reason encounters with these beaded citizens of the desert are uncommon. They can spend more than 90% of their lives underground. Their activity is mostly limited to a few weeks in early Spring, and they generally emerge to forage in late evening, returning to their dens at dawn. Because of their exceptionally slow metabolism, they can survive on as few as three or four large meals a year. Those meals converted into fat, stored primarily in their tails, allows them to spend 10- or 11-months estivating (hibernating) out of sight, in their dens.

Despite their fierce reputation Gila Monsters are shy nonthreatening creatures. I have had them walk across my sandal clad feet on more than one occasion. If hassled these monsters will open their mouth and hiss loudly as a warning, but to get bitten by one would require handling it. They have venom, but lack a mechanism to inject it, so they must flood their mouth with the venom, filling grooved teeth by capillary attraction. They then must chew it into their prey. A Gila Monster bit should receive medical attention, but despite the legends we have all heard to the contrary, there is no reputable record of human death associated with Gila Monster envenomation. To the contrary, the saliva of Gila Monsters contains a compound called exendin-4, which has been synthesized into a drug used successfully to treat type 2 diabetes. This is a prime example of how the study of wildlife can lead to significant contributions to human wellbeing. It underscores the need to protect and preserve wildlife of all kinds. The Gila Monster is the official Utah state reptile, and they enjoy legal protection here and, in every state, where they occur. (CA, NV, UT, NM & AZ)

Several years ago, I had the rare opportunity of filming a Gila Monster excavate and consume four tortoise eggs from the apron of a tortoise den. The entire time a female tortoise stood inches away and observed the carnage without moving a muscle. I found myself wishing I knew how to communicate with tortoises so I could scream out “good grief mother, do something to protect your young”. Times like this create a moral dilemma. Do I intervein in this situation or let nature take its course. On this day I chose the latter.

I’m Professor Marshall Topham and I’m wild about Utah’s Gila Monsters

Credits:

Images Courtesy & Copyright
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Friend Weller, https://www.upr.org/people/friend-wellerCourtesy & Copyright © Anderson, Howe, Wakeman
Text: Marshall Topham, https://ees.utahtech.edu/faculty-staff/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah pieces by Marshall Topham https://wildaboututah.org/author/marshall-topham/

Gila Monster, Fieldbook of Utah Species, Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=heloderma%20suspectum

Jolley, Faith Heaton, A rare sighting of the elusive Gila monster, Wildlife Blog, Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Utah Department of Natural Resources, March 28, 2019 https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-blog/580-a-rare-sighting-of-the-elusive-gila-monster.html

Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, Washington County & US Bureau of Land Management, http://www.redcliffsdesertreserve.com/

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Gila Monsters

‘Flower’ Gila Monster
Click for larger view
Copyright Daniel D. Beck
Central Washington University

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

Turn up your radio and see if you can imagine the Utah creature who makes this sound.

[Sound: Jeff Rice, Gila Monster recorded at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum]

That was the gasping breathing of a gila monster. It was recorded by Jeff Rice of the University of Utah’s Western Soundscape Archive.

Gila Monsters occur in pockets across the desert southwest. In Utah they are found only in Mojave habitat in the southwest corner of Washington County.

Once you get to know them, gilas are not at all monstrous. They are the largest of all lizards native to the U.S. An average gila might be 14-16 in. in length and would weigh about a pound and a half. They have thick sausage-like tails and large heads. The scales on the backs of these lizards resemble a beadwork pattern of black, orange, pink, and yellow.

Of the nearly4000 lizard species in the entire world only two are venomous. And one of them is the gila monster. But only a small amount of venom is introduced during a bite—not enough to kill a healthy human. Nevertheless, the bites are notoriously painful.

Gila Monster
Click map for larger view
Copyright Daniel D. Beck
Central Washington University

But gilas are reluctant to strike. Victims of bites have usually provoked the lizard in some way. Before biting, the lizard will hiss, and then back away from its would-be attacker. But if these warning efforts fail, it will latch on with frightening speed and tenacity. For gilas are the pitbulls of the lizard world.

A long-held belief has been that the breath of a gila monster is nauseating and toxic. In fact, it was even thought that gilas killed their prey with halitosis. The truth is that like many other animals, a frightened gila may regurgitate a recent meal when molested. Because gilas have such a slow metabolism, that last meal might be pretty old and smelly. Also, excited or reproductively active monsters can transmit a detectable body odor which some people find offensive.

These days, you’d be very lucky to see a gila monster in the wild. For in many areas their numbers are decreasing though collection and habitat loss. Another reason is that gila monsters are homebodies. They spend up to 97% of their lifetime tucked away in burrows or rock crevices.

For sources and pictures of gila monsters, see www.wildaboututah.org.

Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for support of this Wild About Utah topic.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Daniel D. Beck, Central Washington University

Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center

Sources & Additional Reading

Beck, Daniel D. 2005. Biology of Gila monsters and beaded lizards

Beck, Daniel D.,1990. Ecology and behavior of the Gila Monster in southwestern Utah. Journal of Herpetology 24, pp. 54–68.

Brown, David. E. Carmony, Neil. B. 1999. Gila Monster : Facts and Folklore of America’s Aztec Lizard. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. https://www.amazon.com/Gila-Monster-Folklore-Americas-Lizard/dp/0874806003

Rice. Jeff. Western Soundscape Archive. J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, https://westernsoundscape.org/

State of Utah Natural Resources. Division of Wildlife Resources Species Database. Gila Monster. https://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Map.asp?Id=691 [Accessed Feb 2, 2010]

For More Information:

National Geographic . Wild Detectives: Gila Monster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59LRezTYkeo [Accessed Feb 2, 2010]

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum https://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_gila.php [Accessed Feb 2, 2010]