Zebra-Tailed Lizard

Zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides) are flashy sprinters with dazzling stripes and fearless attitudes to match. Commonly found in scrub communities in Arizona’s portions of the Sonoran, Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts, these medium-sized lizards can also be spotted in foothills and bajadas, where they inhabit sandy washes. They feast on a variety of insects, including grasshoppers, bees and wasps, along with smaller lizards and occasional plant material. As heat-tolerant reptiles, they remain active even when high summer temperatures force other lizards to find shelter — in fact, on warm desert nights, you sometimes can find them sleeping above ground. Zebra-tailed lizards have trademark cream-colored spots and tails marked with grayish-brown bands that are black on the underside of the tail.