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I just got back from some fieldwork in Sonora, Mexico. Although I had driven through many years ago on spring break (when my friend Levi and I were initially rejected because he didn’t have his birth certificate proving that the car with his dad’s name on the title was his 😅), this was the first time I had spent time herping there. I have been wanting to explore many areas of the state for a long time, so it was super exciting. I drove down from Phoenix with Simone Gable (a postdoctoral researcher at ASU who has started collaborating on the genomic research I have been doing on whiptail lizards) and Adrian Quijada (a professor at Tohono O’odham Community College who has studied whiptail lizards in Sonora for many years). After spending one night in Hermosillo, we drove to the city of Moctezuma to meet with our collaborators (Hugo Silva Kurumiya, María de la Paz Montañez Armenta, Tuli Yanes Arvayo, and their student Judas) from Universidad de la Sierra who were helping us accomplish our fieldwork goals. We had two primary goals: 1) to collect fresh tissues for several species of whiptail lizards for genome sequencing (Simone is funded through the ‘Earth Biogenome Project’ at ASU, which is supporting our efforts to sequence high quality reference genomes for as many species of whiptail lizards as possible), and 2) to sample populations of the Aspidoscelis burti complex for research resolving the boundaries between species that Adrian and I are collaborating on. The Sierra Madre Occidental is an extremely interesting region to study the whiptails because numerous unisexual species exist in the region (alongside their sexual parental ancestor), some of which are endemic and have small distributions. The area we were visiting is also interesting because it is an area of contact between several subspecies within the A. burti complex, the giant spotted whiptail lizard and the western Mexican whiptail lizard from the barranca region.
Entrance to Moctezuma, and a neat painting at Universidad de la Sierra, Mexico also has amazing artwork, I love the vibrancy of many of the colors they use in paintings
Our first stop in Moctezuma was great for many reasons: our collaborators were awesome and super fun to spend time with, they took us to an amazing property in a canyon east of Moctezuma where there was a beautiful stream with frogs and tons of A. burti, and the carne con chile burritos were amazing (Adrian was dreaming about them the night after we ate there). One of my favorite parts of fielwork in Mexico is the incredible food, with the best part being able to explore the different chiles and salsas they have in different regions (in Sonora, the chiltepen pepper rocked my world).
Herping with collaborators from Universidad de la Sierra who helped us find these beautiful giant whiptail lizards
It was also fun to explore the different parts of the sierra, including incredible scenery (such as the vista at Mirador Escenico Cruz Del Diablo) and the different habitats of the mountain range. In the high sierra, we were successful at getting Aspidoscelis preopatae, a unisexual species I described with collaborators several years ago, but which has been little studied. But honestly, the best part was being able to see the giant whiptails, they are such majestic creatures.
A beautiful vista, a species of unisexual whiptail lizard, and Adrian and I questioning how a crafty whiptail evaded our grasp
Overall the trip was highly successful, as we mostly got all of our targets and learned a lot about this really interesting part of Mexico, that is just across the border from Arizona! I cannot wait to return and explore more areas, perhaps during a monsoon when things are much wetter (although we got some rain in the high sierra while we were there, the past couple years had been very dry in the region), and further develop the collaborative research and educational efforts we started on this trip with the faculty and students at Universidad de la Sierra.
The best place to find whiptails in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico is in canyons and riparian areas along streams
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