- I'm Coyote Peterson,
this morning, we're in the Sonoran Desert
and right here next to me is a creosote bush,
which is gonna lead me to one very special lizard.
Ah!
Uh, dang it!
Well, we know where he is.
(dynamic jungle music)
For anyone that has ever spent time
exploring in the Southwest, I'm willing to bet
there's a good chance that you have seen a lizard.
However, there's a big difference
between seeing and catching a lizard.
Some, like the regal horned lizard are rather slow,
which makes them easy to catch,
then you have collared lizards,
which if you're quick enough to catch them,
there's a good chance
they will also turn around and catch you.
I got a hold of him, he's got a hold of me,
look at that, argh!
Jeez!
With their teeth.
Holy cow!
Alright, whoa, those teeth are super sharp.
When it comes to Arizona's Sonoran Desert,
one of my favorite species is the desert iguana,
which is actually pretty easy to track down,
as long as you follow the right signs in the environment
and this is the creosote bush,
ah, it smells so good,
this is one of the most fragrant plants,
that you have here in the Sonoran Desert
and what these iguanas are looking for is this right here,
these little flowers are breakfast.
All we've gotta do is follow the trail of creosote bushes
and hopefully it's gonna lead us
to one of these little lizards.
One key to having an animal encounter
is being able to be patient,
which is oftentimes easier said than done,
especially when dealing with the heat of the desert.
Oh, it is scorching hot, it is about 105 degrees,
we have been out here since about six o'clock this morning,
we're approaching noon right now,
which is okay, because the desert iguana
does better in high heat, than most other lizard species,
we are in a field of creosote bushes
and mesquite trees, we've been looking for hours,
I didn't think it was gonna be this tough to find one.
As our search continued,
the endless expanse of desert scrubland
became more and more disorienting,
the sun beating down, its beams of light slowly cooking us
as we rounded spine-covered plants
and stared into empty creosote bushes.
I mean, there are literally thousands
of these creosote bushes out here
and you can see how sparse they are,
I mean, you can pretty much walk up like this,
look in, no lizard, keep moving.
Time seemed to be dragging on forever,
until finally I spotted our target.
There's one right there,
well, it's a lizard, I can't tell if it's a desert iguana,
but it's definitely a lizard right there
basking in that tree, see its tail hanging down?
Oh, it looks like a desert iguana, I can see its tail.
Oh, this is it!
Okay, I don't know if I'm going to be able to catch it,
it's the first one that we've seen, he's pretty low,
he's probably gonna burrow right under there.
Okay, follow me, let me see if we can get him,
this is just we're gonna have one shot at this.
(light suspenseful music)
I think it's a desert iguana.
See, he's just up on that branch, he's holding on,
he's got his foot wrapped around that branch.
Okay, I'm pretty much just gonna have to make a jump
into that creosote bush and kind of grab him,
are you ready?
One,
two,
three.
Ah!
(light suspenseful music)
Ah!
He got right down that burrow.
Dang it!
Well, we know where he is.
Did you see how fast they are?
Unbelievably fast, alright,
first thing we need to do is block up
any other possible exits for this burrow
and then what I'm gonna use is a bottle of water,
dump that down the hole
and hopefully I will get him flushed back out.
Alright, ready?
Not the smartest thing to do
with your last bottle of water in the desert,
but when you wanna catch a desert iguana,
sometimes you don't have many options.
During monsoon season, burrows flood on a daily basis,
so what I'm doing is replicating
a completely natural occurrence.
Oh, this burrow might be really deep.
(light haunting music)
Shoot!
- [Mark] We're gonna need more water.
- We're gonna need more water.
Things don't always go according to plan
and when it comes to catching lizards,
this is often the case.
Now it's fair to say that these reptiles
are considerably faster than I am,
however, I'd argue that they definitely
are not smarter than this Coyote.
Dang it!
Well, we know where he is.
It was time to call in plan B, the manmade monsoon.
Now in the desert, when huge monsoon rains pour down,
all these burrows flood,
which drives animals up out of the ground.
We're going to pour gallons of water into this burrow,
hopefully get the desert iguana to shoot out of there
and I'll be able to catch it.
It's gonna be tough, but we're not gonna give up yet.
We sent our wildlife biologist, Mario
huffing across the desert and back to our vehicle,
where he would retrieve
our emergency five-gallon reserve of water.
I gotta sit here under this creosote bush
and watch the hole, in case the lizard comes out.
This is literally a stakeout now,
anything could be living in that hole,
so it makes me a little nervous just laying here,
but ooh, that's my move,
I guess I could sit here and practice,
'cause we're only gonna get one shot,
if we get these gallons of water here
and that lizard does pop back up out of the burrow,
if I don't get it on the first try,
we're not gonna have another shot at it.
45 minutes later and Mario returned with the water.
Alright, we're back, bring it on in, Mario.
Mario has huffed across the desert
and has brought back with him,
what is that, five gallons of water?
Five gallons,
if that doesn't get this iguana out of that burrow,
you guys will have seen
your first official miss on Breaking Trail,
see, everybody's always asking,
"Coyote, do you always catch the animals?"
This is truly one of those instances,
where I think we're gonna release this episode,
even if I don't catch it,
just because of how much work
we've gone through to try to get it.
Okay, you guys, ready?
I'm gonna tip it
and just kind of start to funnel it in there, ready?
- Yep. - One, two, three.
(cheerful orchestral music)
The method I am using to draw the iguana up from this burrow
simulates a completely natural occurrence
in the desert during monsoon season,
so this is in no way hurting the animal or the environment.
That's a lot of water.
Come on.
Something's moving.
Something's definitely coming up.
I can hear it.
(cheerful orchestral music)
Got him! - Oh, my God!
(laughing)
- Did you guys see that?
(laughing)
Could you see his little head sticking up?
- Oh man, your hand's dirty. - Oh, my gosh.
My hand is shaking, I didn't know
when I should actually reach for him and we actually got it,
can you guys believe that that just happened?
(laughing)
- [Mark] Oh my God.
- That may be the most impressive catch
I have ever pulled off in my life.
- [Mark] Did you think you were actually gonna catch him?
- I did not, I thought it was pretty hopeless,
as we sent Mario back to get that giant jug of water,
literally sitting here for what, a good 45 minutes
staring at the burrow, nothing coming out,
I figured it was connected to one of these other holes
and he was long gone, but sometimes if you wait it out,
you can catch the desert iguana.
Now this is a lizard species
that is very active during the day, as you could see,
incredibly quick as it jumped out of the creosote bush
and darted into a burrow
and they're pretty docile,
if you can manage to catch one of these lizards,
as you can see, it's not trying to bite me,
it's really just hanging out at this point.
Alright, bring your camera in a little bit closer there,
look at the eyes of that lizard,
now this is primarily a diurnal species,
which means that they're out during the day,
that's why they're so in tune to everything
that's moving around in their environments.
The cryptic color pattern on this lizard
allows it to perfectly blend in to these sandy environments
and their bellies are incredibly smooth,
which allows them to quickly
scurry across hot sand surfaces.
Now the desert iguana is related to the green iguana,
which is native to Central and South America,
but here in the Southwest, this is the only iguana,
that you're gonna bump into.
Let's talk about this lizard's tail for a second,
look at how long that is,
about twice the length of the body,
now they use these tails to help them balance in the trees,
when they're trying to eat the flowers of the creosote bush,
but also when they're on the ground and they're running,
they can almost lift their body
just slightly up off the sand
and the tail works like a rudder,
as it helps them navigate across the desert terrain.
Now one of the coolest and grossest facts about this lizard
is that they don't only eat
those delicious little creosote bush flowers,
they also eat the fecal pellets of other desert iguanas,
do you guys know what a fecal pellet is?
That's a poop, you eat other desert iguanas' poop.
The reason that they eat these fecal pellets
is to balance out the amount of cellulose,
that is in their gut,
so gross, let me smell your breath,
doesn't smell like he's been eating any turds this morning,
smells like you've been eating some creosote bush flowers,
kind of gross, but also kind of neat at the same time.
Well, it certainly wasn't easy,
but a little bit of patience and five gallons of water
and we managed to catch ourselves one awesome desert iguana.
Time to get this little guy back into the wild
and see what else we can find out here
in the Sonoran Desert.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild,
we'll see you on the next adventure.
(cheerful orchestral music)
After the first miss,
we definitely considered throwing in the towel,
but with a little teamwork, we pulled it off
and in the end, getting up close with a desert iguana
was totally worth the effort.
If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out the time I was captured by the collared lizard
and don't forget, subscribe to join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.
(light jungle music)