Effects of Range Management on the Plateau Spot-tailed Earless Lizard, Year 2 Results
Steffen, Kathryn
Walkup, Danielle
Hibbitts, Toby J.
Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute
College Station, Texas USA
Tolleson, Doug
Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas USA
Texas A&M AgriLife Research
Sonora Research Station
Sonora, Texas USA
Crump, Paul
Nongame and Rare Species Program
Wildlife Division — Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Austin, Texas USA
Ryberg, Wade
Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute
College Station, Texas USA
The Plateau Spot-tailed Earless Lizard (Holbrookia lacerata) is currently under review for federal listing. Its range includes the semi-desert grasslands of the Edwards Plateau in Central Texas, across which apparent population declines have been observed. On a microhabitat scale, previous research has shown that H. lacerata is most often encountered on bare ground and less frequently in dense or brushy vegetation. Our research objective is to better understand which rangeland management practices cultivate microhabitat landscapes preferred by H. lacerata. Our second year of surveys concluded in 2023 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Station at Sonora in Edwards County. The Sonora Station has researched long-term control, grazing, and fire management treatments for decades, providing a well-documented landscape that focuses on rangeland practices already implemented in this region. A diverse habitat mosaic may be preferable to our target species and rangeland practices such as these are regularly used to control patches of woody vegetation and encourage such landscapes. We conducted detection surveys for H. lacerata using a stratified random sampling design with forty 0.8-ha circular survey plots across four treatments: control, graze, burn, and burn and graze. In year two we began vegetation surveys with a sampling design derived from the point-centered quarter method, as well as started tracking H. lacerata. Preliminary results show that individuals were found primarily within grazed (n=36), burned (n=22), or burned and grazed plots (n=10), with only six individuals captured in the control plots. We will continue to conduct surveys for H. lacerata and collect habitat data in 2024.