Reticulate Gila Monster Heloderma suspectum suspectum

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Reticulate Gila Monster Heloderma suspectum
suspectum

• By Colt Hyatt and Racheal Linville

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Pick a Page any Page
Description
How it hunts
Eggs
Videos
Venom
Classification
Habitat
Evolution History
If Bitten
Reproduction
Adaptations
Diet
Work Cited
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Videos

• http//www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/outreach/poison/gi
  la.php
• http//www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/video/g
  ilamonster_snakehunter.html

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Habitat

• Prefers an area wet enough for shrub life
• Found more in a rockier wetter desert, than drier
  sandier desert
• Prefers rocky foothills over upland or
  agricultural areas
• Habitat is being destroyed by agriculture
• Estimated that they spend up to 98 of life
  underground

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Description

• Stout body style
• Grows 18-24 inches long
• Average weight 3 pounds
• It has small bead-like scales across back in
  colors of black, orange, pink, or yellow
• Head is black
• Named after Gila River Basin of South Western
  United States
• 1 of 2 species of venomous lizards
• Lives up to 20 years in captivity

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Classification

• Kingdom Animal
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Reptilia
• Order Squamata
• Family Helodermatiae
• Species - Heloderma suspectum suspectum

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Diet

• It is carnivorous
• It eats lizards, frogs, insects, carrion (dead
  rotting flesh), birds and their eggs, and small
  mammals like rodents
• Young Gila may consume up to 50 of its body
  weight in a single feeding
• Adult Gila may consume up to 35 of its body
  weight in a single feeding
• Usually eats at night

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Hunting Style

• It hunts with sense of smell and taste rather
  than eyes
• It smells and tracks prey by flicking tongue in
  and out to taste scent particles left on the
  ground
• Relies on the element of surprise
• Most prey is small and usually does not need
  venom, but it is still used
• Gila will clamp on to prey and roll to
  intensifies venom

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Adaptations

• Colorful, bead-like skin equals a great desert
  camouflage
• Its claws are great for digging burrows and for
  digging out other animals eggs
• Tongue helps it hunt and receive information
  about surroundings via scent
• Jacobsons Organ receives and transforms scents
• Tail stores fat which provides food when supply
  is low and also provides food when in hibernation

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Reproduction

• They reproduce sexually
• Court and mate between April and June
• Mating usually lasts 1 hour
• 2-15 eggs are laid in mid to late summer
• Average amount of eggs laid is 5
• No other know egg-laying lizard in North America
  lays eggs in the winter and then hatch the next
  year

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Eggs

• Oval shaped and leathery
• Buried about 5 inches deep
• The sun heats the sand then the sand heats the
  eggs
• In 117-130 days the eggs hatch
• Babies are bright and colorful and about 4 inches
  in length

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Evolution History

• Relatives are the Blue-tongued skink and Komodo
  dragon
• The closest relative is the Mexican beaded
  lizard, because both are in the same family, both
  have pretty much the same environment, both are
  venomous, the only difference is the Mexican
  beaded lizard is slightly darker and bigger
• Ancestors where tropical dwellers, because of
  this the Gila monster avoids hot dry conditions
  unlike most desert lizards
• Family has been traced back over 98 million
  years. That is before dinosaurs appeared on the
  earth.
• The Gila monster is at least 30 million years old

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Venom

• Comes from glands in the lower jaw
• Venom flows into bite through channels in a
  groove of the lower teeth
• Venom attacks the central nervous system
• Venom is as toxic as a diamond back rattle snake,
  but delivery is vary slow
• Suggested that venom is used more as a defense
  than for feeding

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If Bitten

• Bite is described as being extremely painful, and
  pain is initially confined to area bitten
• You may experience localized swelling, nausea,
  vomiting, hypertension, chills, weakness,
  faintness, fever, and excessive perspiration
• It is important to disengage lizard a soon as
  possible
• Ways to do this put a sturdy stick between bite
  and lizards mouth and push or submerse lizard
  under water
• Brittle teeth may stay in the wound
• Bites are rarely fatal

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Work Cited
"Gila Monster." Birstol Zoo Gardens. 2006.
Bristol Zoo Gardens. 23 Apr 2007lthttp//www.brist
olzoo.org.uk/learning/animals/reptiles/gila- monst
ergt. "Gila Monster." Nashville Zoo . 2006.
Nashville Zoo. 23 Apr 2007 lthttp//www.nashvillez
oo.org/gila.htmgt. Huey, Raymond B.. "Gila
Monster."The World Book Encyclopedia. 2002.
2002.