San Esteban Island chuckwalla  (Sauromalus varius)

Biology

This diurnal lizard emerges in the morning and basks in the sun to raise its body temperature before foraging for food (8). Chuckwallas are primarily herbivorous, feeding on a variety of fruit, leaves, buds, succulent stems and flowers (8), with some species supplementing their diet with the occasional insect (7). When danger is sensed, chuckwallas display a unique defensive strategy of evading a potential predator. The threatened animal scurries into a rock crevice wherein it firmly lodges itself by inflating its lungs, thereby making removal by a predator almost impossible (5) (8).

Relatively little is known about the reproductive biology of the San Esteban Island chuckwalla. Chuckwallas generally lay a clutch of between 5 and 16 eggs in June to perhaps August, although some females may not lay eggs every year (7).

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