New Texas Horned Lizards
The lizards are part of a captive breeding and wild release program at the ABQ BioPark.
Sept. 30, 2020 - Five Texas horned lizards, born in August 2019 at the ABQ BioPark Zoo, are now on exhibit in the reptile building.
The BioPark has been breeding the species since 2017. The Texas horned lizard has disappeared from about half of its historic range due to habitat loss, human eradication of the ant populations that these lizards eat and displacement of native ant populations by invasive fire ants.
To date, the ABQ BioPark has successfully released about 70 young into the wild in Socorro County, New Mexico. According to Richard Reams, curator of reptiles, the BioPark's end goal is to reproduce more horned lizards for release into the wild and monitor their survival after release.