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Appearances can be deceiving. At first glance, you’d never think the rolling white sand dunes of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas held the largest stand of oak in the country. The region’s shinnery oaks are only four or five feet high, but they provide food, shade, and a breeding ground for the small, brown sand dune lizard, highly specialized to its habitat — which is slipping away due to livestock grazing, oil drilling, and a flawed energy policy.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed; candidate species
PETITIONED: 2002
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: Candidate 2002
RANGE: Chaves, Eddy, Lea, and Roosevelt counties in New Mexico; and Andrews, Crane, Gaines, Ward, and Winkler counties in Texas
THREATS: Habitat destruction by oil and gas development and herbicide spraying, competition from other lizard species
POPULATION TREND: The sand dune lizard possesses many characteristics of a species at risk of extinction. It is an extreme habitat specialist, has a restricted and fragmented distribution, and is rapidly losing habitat.
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SAVING THE SAND DUNE LIZARD
The sand dune lizard has the second-smallest range of all lizards in the United States and is specialized to live in the hollowed-out depressions of dunes formed by wind and shaded by the unusual shinnery oak . Under the shade of these oak trees, which can live to be thousands of years old, the sand dune lizard buries itself in the cool, white sand, avoiding predators and regulating its body temperature. But when it comes to oil and gas development and livestock grazing, there’s nowhere for the lizard to hide.
Controlled studies have found that relatively small numbers of oil and gas wells have dramatically lowered sand dune lizard populations. Under President Bush's energy policy, oil and gas development is rapidly increasing on federal lands, resulting in dramatic losses of sand dune lizard habitat. This habitat loss is compounded by efforts of ranchers to remove shinnery oak — which is toxic to cattle — by using an herbicide spray.
Refusing to let the sand dune lizard be another casualty of cattle grazing and Bush's energy policy, the Center petitioned for the animal to be listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2002. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the sand dune lizard a candidate for listing, thereby avoiding a grant of full protection.
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Contact: Noah Greenwald
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