Reptilia · Squamata
Crotaphytus collarisSay, 1822
Collared Lizard
Photograph by RJ Baltierra, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 131 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Crotaphytidae › Crotaphytus
- Grows to
- 131mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 13years
What is known
45 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 13years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31.8–34.6°C89–94 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 36.75°C98 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 35.5–38°C96–100 °F
Degenhardt et al. 1996: 7 from Fitch 1956, but their own data suggest natural longevity >10 years, may exceed 10 years (Heimes 2022), "the age structure which goes from age 1 (yearlings) to age 10 (the oldest lizard in these samples, although a sample taken in 2010 on Stegall Mountain revealed lizards of 12 and 13 years of age)." (Templeton et al. 2022)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 131mm5.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 104.1mm4 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 90.6mm3.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 38mm1.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 38mm1.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 86.74g3.1 oz
max 131 mm (e.g., Heimes 2022)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 7.5–8months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 3000m
- Range size
- 1,956,783km²
- Density
- 0.1–253.3per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 323.8m2
Arthropods and small lizards, snakes and rodents (McGuire 1996), and some plant material (Grismer 2002, McGuire 1996), arthropods, lizards, rodents and chicks (Hibbitts and Hibbitts 2015), arthropods (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Knowlton 1934), lizards and insects (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), invertebrates and small vertebrates (Heimes 2022)
e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Scales and Butler 2015, Butler 2005, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016
(strictly diurnal, Lemos-Espinal et al. 2015)/ primarily nocturnal (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016 - but say they prefer temperatures of 37-40 degrees!)
Saxicolous and Terrestrial (Dunham et al. 1988, Lemos-Espinal and Smith 2007), terrestrial (Mesquita et al. 2016), Saxicolous (Scales and Butler 2015, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)
to 7000-8000ft (Young 2011), 1160-1654 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), 90-3000 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 650-2000 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 6eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–24eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.7–8.3eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 9.5–10months
4-11, mean 6.9 (Telemeco and Baird 2011), 4-24 (Lemos-Espinal and Dixon 2013), 1-12 (Ramirez Bautista and Arizmendi 2004), mean 7.6 (Pike et al. 2008), means 7.47-7.55 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 7-22 (Hibbitts and Hibbitts 2015), 7 (Shaw 1952, n=1), 1-24, mean 5 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), 1-14 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), max 24, mean 5 (Heimes 2022), Cruz-Elizalde et al. 2022b (8.0 ± 0.58 7–9, n = 3)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Crotaphytus collaris auriceps FITCH & TANNER 1951 Crotaphytus collaris collaris (SAY 1823) Crotaphytus collaris baileyi STEJNEGER 1890 Crotaphytus collaris fuscus INGRAM & TANNER 1971 Crotaphytus collaris melanomaculatus AXTELL & WEBB 1995
- Described by
- Say
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1822
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
20.5 in × 20.5 in × 13 in(52 × 52 × 33 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 5.25 in (131 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 89–94 °F (31.8–34.6 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
10kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 87 g, the heaviest recorded for Collared Lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Crotaphytidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Crotaphytus collaris. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/crotaphytus-collaris
@misc{crotaphytus_collaris_2026,
title = {Crotaphytus collaris},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/crotaphytus-collaris}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.