Cecil Schwalbe: Well this is the most impressive reptile we have in the southwest, in my opinion.
And this is the Gila monster.
This is one of only two venomous lizards in the entire world the other being its larger
cousin the Mexican beaded lizard.
And this is a widely foraging predator that searches about for the helpless young of birds
and mammals.
Some of its favorite foods are like baby Cottontail rabbits, they'll eat quail eggs but they probably
don't eat baby quail because the baby quail ten minutes after they hatch they're able
to run around too fast for the Gila monster to catch them.
Notice this round tail, this one is only about half as big a diameter as it can get and these
are fat storage organs.
The Gila monster makes its main living in the spring here in Arizona in April and May
it's eating all those baby birds and baby mammals and the eggs.
And it can carry enough fat in this tail to carry it the full year until next year if
times get tough later on.
There have been at least two observations of a Gila monster attempting to dig up Desert
tortoise eggs with the female Desert tortoise there trying to defend the nest.
And in one case, the Gila monster and the tortoise were biting at each other and there's
an incredible series of photographs and in one case the Gila monster was successful and
got an egg and the other one it didn't.
They have very sharp, doubly grooved teeth that, when the Gila monster bites venom is
extruded into the grooves of the teeth and then by capillarity flows right up into the
wound.
I can personally attest that the Gila monster bite is extremely painful.
That was one of my most painful professional experiences.
I was showing a bunch of people a Gila monster when I was working for Arizona Game and Fish
many years ago and I used to do this trick of reflexing the lower lip so I could show
people the teeth.
Well you only have a couple of millimeters of leeway there and one day it just swung
around and grabbed my finger and I was totally under its control.
But, it was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had.
My finger felt like it was on fire and this wave of fire kept moving up my arm.
And I got nauseous, I had difficulty breathing, I had pain in my kidneys, blood in my urine.
I had this marvelous systemic reaction to the poison in this creature.
But I don't think, had I not even had access to the hospital where they took me it wouldn't
have killed me but it would have made me very sick.
I probably would have crawled under a Palo Verde or a Mesquite and just waited it out.