The lizard, also known as Canada’s version of the iguana, can be found in Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan, as well as southeast Alberta. Biologists are now conducting a study to see what can be done to replenish the population, the Canadian Press reports.
The Melfort Journal reports that the population has dwindled in the last 30 to 40 years, with somewhere between 6,500 and 7,500 lizards remaining. It has been on Canada’s Species At Risk list since 2007.
Dr. Shelley Pruss, a species conservation specialist, said that her team has only seen the Greater Short-Horned Lizard once. It can be difficult to spot due to its camouflaged armour. The team also hasn’t seen the lizard perform its blood-spurting trick, although the lizard her team saw did have blood around its eyes.
The lizard apparently won’t spurt blood when faced with humans; they don’t scare the lizards enough.
“They don’t do it to people,” Pruss said. “People like us don’t really scare them enough. But they will do it if they’re picked up by a coyote or fox.”
Pruss says that the blood in the lizard’s eyes contains chemicals that can make predators a little nauseous.
The Species At Risk list is also facing an uncertain future, Geekquinox reports. The prevailing fears are that the list is updated too slowly, and that the Canadian federal government might move to weaken the act.
