Alberta is home to a rare lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes
Alberta is home to a diverse array of creatures, but did you know that a rare lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes can be found in the province?
The greater short-horned lizard is about the size of a teacup, and as the only native lizard species in Alberta, it is considered imperilled or at high risk of extinction in the province.
In Alberta, the species is scattered across habitats along the South Saskatchewan River, within the Manyberries Hills, the Chin Coulee/Forty Mile Coulee complex, and 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, which 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 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 in 2022, a record number ever found by the NCC, according to a report by CBC News.
The NCC’s first project in Alberta was in 1970 with the acquisition of the Wagner Natural Area ā 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.