I am writing with a short but very important update. Yesterday Gilberto saw a pair of Beaded Lizards copulating in one of the enclosures. Last week we finished sexing and measuring tail widths of all the animals at the Reserve. They have all increased their tail width at least 0.5 cm (average 1 cm), which is a good indication that they are storing fat well. On that trip we saw some of the males with swollen tails and some with sperm in the cloaca…. which corresponds to the patterns we’ve seen for five years in the wild while radiotracking and we had hope that the captive animals would copulate in the short term (breeding season in the wild is from mid September through late October). Taking that into account, I had asked Gilberto to watch all activity in the enclosures, especially after the middle of the afternoon (when copulation had been reported) and Eureka! Yesterday a pair of Beaded Lizards was seen copulating at around 4:15 p.m.

The good news is that it also seems that our sexing using measurements of head width, SVL, tail length, and preanal scale shape was somewhat correct because after the pair finished their copulations I asked Gilberto to use the microchip reader to see which animals were interacting. The pair was made up of Rambo (male) and Wilfreda (female). Wilfreda is the ¨lady¨ given to us by CONAP in February of this year. She showed herself to be healthy during her months with CONAP and since she is the largest female we have, I asked Gilberto to introduce her into one of the breeding pens… and it seems that her sex appeal is still there! Now we just have to wait to see if she is still fertile. We’ve got our fingers crossed! The important event was photographed and filmed by Gilberto, and we hope to have the pictures and video available soon.

In the wild I have observed certain patterns in radiotracked males at the beginning of the breeding season. That first event and the observations we have made in the past week of two males with bite wounds on their heads (probably the product the ritual fighting for females) give us hope that the romantic season for our 10 Beaded Lizards has begun!!!!!!