horned lizards’ primary food
source. They feed almost
exclusively on harvester ants.
There’s this little linkage
that’s pretty easy and clear,
where when you have a good
base of native grasses and
they get rain, and they pro-
duce a lot of seed, you see
more ants, and then you see
more horny toads.”
Fort Stockton had more
than a bucket-full of rainfall
that year, which allowed me
to see a great number of
horned lizards during sum-
mer 2016. They were all over
the place! Front yards. Back
yards. Beneath the pallets
behind my office. My wife
National Park, my team and I
got lost somewhere along the
Bowl Trail. Getting back on
track, we spotted a tiny
mountain short horned
lizard. According to old folk-
lore, if you see a horned
lizard while lost, it will point
the way. I didn’t know of this
folklore at the time, but
strangely enough we found
where we needed to be short-
ly after finding the baby
horned toad.
Another fun folklore is the
tale of Old Rip, one of the
most famous horned lizards
of all time. Near Abilene sits
the town of Eastwood, where
the little legend was born. In
house and the horned lizard
was to finally be unsealed.
to
see
Anticipation
whether the horned lizard
would be dead or alive drew a
large crowd to the occasion of
the cornerstone opening. The
crowd was on pins and nee-
dles, anxious to see if would
be alive or just a flat dusty
corpse.
As the judge raised the
reptile high, it is said that the
horned lizard’s loose leg
twitched, sending the crowd
into a frenzy. It wiggled!!
The lizard was named Old
Rip, for Rip Van Winkle, and
its 31-year hibernation theory
is still a standing legacy for
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even found a small hatchling
inside a local dollar store.
There are three species of
horned lizards native to the
Trans-Pecos region. The
most common one is the
Texas horned lizard, which
can be found across the
majority of the state. Another
one is called the round tailed
horned lizard, which lives
exclusively in the western
part of the state. And the
third species out here is called
the mountain short horned
lizard, which can only be
found
in
the
Davis
Mountains
and
the
Guadalupe Mountains.
While hiking Hunter Peak
in the Guadalupe Mountains
1897 Eastwood was laying a
cornerstone for a brand new
courthouse. The citizens of
Eastwood decided it would
be interesting to use the cor-
nerstone as a time capsule,
and placed various items such
as newspapers, coins and a
Bible into its small vault.
Eastland’s County Clerk,
Ernest E. Wood, was the one
who decided to put a horned
lizard that his son had caught
into the cornerstone. The
last-minute addition turned
into a community-wide
experiment to see if the
horned lizard would survive.
Thirty-one years later, an
oil boom brought about the
construction of a new court-
Eastwood. While some think
it’s a hoax and others believe
it to be irrefutable truth, the
legend of Old Rip brought
some fame to all horned frogs
at large.
While they may not be as
trendy as unicorns, I’d like to
see a unicorn wiggle its leg
after 31 years of being con-
fined inside a small space.
Not likely. Cheers to Old Rip
and to all the horned lizards
here in West Texas.
The species is state pro-
tected; so if you see one, don’t
capture it. Go chase a uni-
corn if you want a mystical
pet. Leave the horned lizards
be.
Cenizo
First Quarter 2018
9