Go Make Some Observations

Natural history is the study of organisms in their habitat through observation.

Where do lizards live?

What do they eat?

When do they reproduce?

How do they reproduce?

Do the males and females look alike? Do juveniles look different?

There are so many questions to ask when you let your curiosity get the best of you. Its essential that we understand the delicate balance of different ecosystems so that they can continue to exist and function as they should.

It also allows us to know our place as humans in our ecosystems. Yes, we are very much a part of nature! Despite use sometimes causing the extinction of species.

Because of this, I think it is the duty of all of us to make natural history observations and share them with others. The great thing is, you don’t even have to be a scientist to do it.

When you’re out on a walk and you go “Hey! Look, there’s a lizard!” you can take a photo of it and post it to the app iNaturalist and then scientists can use the photo as research data.

Or you could tell a loved one about a cool observation you saw.

You could even be like scientists and publish cool observations as a note. A note is simply a nice write-up of interesting observations.

Say you go on your favorite walk at the park. You’re familiar with the species there. But one day, you see a lizard doing something odd. For example, you see a western fence lizard eating a small bird. You take a picture, you write a few words about what you saw, and then you could publish it somewhere like Herpetological Review. Then your observation is documented forever and could inspire or inform future research!

When it comes to our challenge species, the side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana), Howard O. Clark, Jr. and Ruby R. Rebensdorf noticed that they were getting eaten by everything. They documented their observations in this natural history note.

Our poor lizards were getting eaten by larger lizards like the blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard, Gambelia sila, which is an endangered species, so the more information we have on them, the better. They also got got by birds like loggerhead shrikes and American kestrels.

Almost seems like they’re ecological popcorn. Their camouflage is so important. Let’s put it to the test.

Can you #FindThatLizard?

Let me know with #FoundThatLizard!