However, the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard is also prone to
sneaking into burrows to steal litters of young rodents, and
to gobbling other lizards, frogs and small vertebrates, as
well as insects. Once they catch the scent of prey, they may
dig for hours to unearth a buried clutch of eggs.
‘Despite appearing to
be rather inactive,
GBLs’ home ranges
average 130ha.’
At Chehaw, they devour just about anything: rats and mice,
chicks and quail eggs. Roberts explains how the keepers
utilize a detailed alimentary regimen to duplicate the feast-
or-famine cycle of feeding in the GBL’s natural habitat.
Fasting for most of the year prevents obesity. “We have to
keep ‘em thin, because when they get fat, lizards don’t
breed. Even though we only have two males right now, we
don’t want to let them get fat, because it’s very hard for
Heloderma to lose weight.”
He gingerly replaces the beaded lizard back into its
enclosure. “We only serve frozen items, never live food.
You can always tell what zoos feed live animals to their
specimens, because their herps will be all scarred up. Live
animals; well you can imagine, they don’t go down without
a fight, so sometimes your reptiles end up missing an eye,
etc.” Ben snorts, “There’s no need for that.”
We watch the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard lumber up a tree
branch, gracelessly swaying from side to side inside the
fake-desert enclosure, its elongated claws clicking audibly as
it scales the limb. Clack, clack, the talons scrabble against
the bark, and then the large lizard trundles into a simulated
burrow, over which has been suspended a heat lamp.
“The warmer the animal is, the better for its digestion,”
Ben explains. “The goal is to get food to move through
their gut. After a big meal, squamates need to stay toasty in
Left: Chehaw’s Ben Roberts with ‘Esteban’.
Below: the Reptile House’s monthly feeding
calendar. Images courtesy Vickie Lillo.
Above right: the fate of the GBL may be inextrica-
bly linked to that of the endangered Guatemalan Spiny
-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura palearis).
Image by Serge Razvodovskii.