Text by Paula Dittrick, TMN Coastal Prairie Chapter blogmaster, using TPWD news release. Photos from TPWD and Wilfred Korth
Texas horned lizards born as captive-raised hatchlings are surviving and reproducing in the wild, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department reports.
TPWD biologists and graduate students in August found 18 hatchlings believed to be offspring of zoo-raised hatchlings released in 2019. A news release says this is the first documented evidence that captive-raised hatchlings are reproducing in the wild.
Reintroduction efforts happen at Mason Mountain and Muse Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in the Llano Uplift following extensive habitat management and restoration. TPWD reports this property formerly was an exotic game ranch.
The Texas Horned Lizard Coalition includes TPWD, Texas Christian University and zoos in Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, and elsewhere. For more than a decade, the coalition has studied how to restore Texas horned lizards to its formerly occupied habitats.
Researchers first translocated adult lizards, capturing them in the wild and releasing them on the WMAs. But predators killed many relocated lizards so scientists then focused on captive breeding programs using partner zoos. Captive breeding enables the release hundreds of lizards at once. Texas horned lizards have large clutch sizes with many eggs, often with multiple clutches each year.
The Fort Worth Zoo, having the longest-running captive breeding effort in Texas, released its 1,000th Texas horned lizard in September when the coalition released 204 hatchlings (with 100 of these being from the Fort Worth Zoo).