One cool dude

Photos by Ned Harris, August 2012

This one's the dude.

All three are Great Earless lizards, but #1 and #3 are gravid females; in the middle is bachelor #2. At this point in the summer, you can often tell them apart. Females have less-defined (or no) bars near the groin anyway (click on the top photo and compare with the middle photo). But you can't see bars in the third photo. What to do? Look for the bright orange (and not much of the belly-blue) color. Orange indicates that she's a she and that she's carrying. Fertilized eggs, of course. No need to mess with her. Less orange, more blue, more defined bars indicates a dude.
A very happy birthday (8/16) to one cool dude, namely, Ned Harris. Thank you for keeping this blog in cool photos!