Sauromalus variusDickerson, 1919

Piebald Chuckwalla

Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.

Photograph by Jenny Saito, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 338 mm snout to vent.

Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Sauromalus

Grows to: 338mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Herbivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives up to: 11.3years

Body length across Iguanidae

Longer than 53% of all iguanas anyone has measured.

53% of 43 species are smaller47% larger

129 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest750 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 129 to 750 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

41 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: Vulnerable
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked: 2018
Red List criteria: D2

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 11.3years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 36°C97 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 36°C

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 338mm13.5 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 297.5mm11.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 299.5mm12 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 75mm3 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 75mm3 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 1651.7g3.6 lb
Body mass · a typical adult: 1422.4g3.1 lb
Body mass at hatchingmeasured: 14g0.49 oz

How it lives

Diet: Herbivorous
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Saxicolous, terrestrial
Habitat: Desert, Shrubland
Biome: Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Active season · months of the year: 9–12months
Region: Nearctic
Mainland or island: Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level: 470m
Range size: 41.2km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Average clutch: 20.85eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 9–36eggs
Mean clutch: 18.3–23.4eggs
Clutches in a year: 0.63per year
Clutches a year: 0.25–0.5per year

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Pleurodonta
Subspecies: No
Described by: Dickerson
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: No
Described in: 1919
Type locality: Mexico

Keeping one

Piebald Chuckwalla is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

4 ft 5 in × 4 ft 5 in × 2 ft 9 in(135 × 135 × 85 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 13.5 in (338 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 97 °F (36 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.

The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.

142kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1,652 g, the heaviest recorded for Piebald Chuckwalla — 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 · adult female, mean
— Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
— Eats arthropods
— Eats vertebrates
— Eats plant matter
— How it hunts
— How the young develop
— Gestation or incubation
— First breeds from · youngest recorded
— First breeds by · oldest recorded
— 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
— Sex decided by
— Population trend
— Density · lowest recorded
— Density · highest recorded
— Home range · largest recorded
— Active in
— Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Iguanidae

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). Sauromalus varius. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sauromalus-varius

@misc{sauromalus_varius_2026,
  title  = {Sauromalus varius},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sauromalus-varius}
}

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.
AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.