Alberta is home to a rare lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes (PHOTOS)
Alberta is home to a wide swath of creatures, but did you know a rare lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes can be found in the province?
They are the only native lizard species in Alberta, the greater short-horned lizard is about the size of a teacup and is considered imperilled or at high risk of extinction in the province.
In Alberta, the species exists in scattered habitats along the South Saskatchewan River, within the Manyberries Hills, along the Chin Coulee/Forty Mile Coulee complex, and along the Milk River and its associated tributaries.
The species can also be found in Saskatchewan and occurs from central Mexico, through the Great Plains of the United States, to the southernmost portions of the Canadian prairies, per the Government of Canada.
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The small lizards have a reputation for their unusual defence mechanism that involves the flooding of their ocular sinuses, tissues found below their eye, with blood.
When feeling threatened by a predator, the lizard will then shoot blood from those sinuses and out of its eye sockets.
It will also use that blood method to clear dust and particles from the surface out of its eyes, per Ask Nature.
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It’s not all bad news for the species in Alberta though. Researchers from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) found eight greater short-horned lizards in southeastern Alberta this month, a record amount ever found by the NCC, per a report by CBC News.
The NCC’s first project in Alberta was in 1970 with the acquisition of the Wagner Natural Area — 130 hectares of highly significant wetland habitat.
Since then, the NCC has protected close to 455,000 hectares of this province’s most ecologically significant land and water.
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