The lizard is surrounded. She darts beneath a spiky shrub, a towering figure in a wide-brimmed hat looming over her. Corey Roelke shouts for someone to put down another glue trap. Edita Folfas swiftly slides a slip of sticky paper onto the rocks and freezes. At a flailing wave from Roelke, Josh Rivera lunges to the other side to block the lizard’s escape route. The lizard makes a run for it; everyone holds their breath. She crosses right over the trap and finds herself stuck. The team erupts in cheers. Roelke gently scoops up the paper and its ensnared occupant and, beaming, holds the lizard up for everyone to see. Her gray-blue head and golden-orange torso shimmer in the sunlight, her scales speckled with black stripes and spots. She’s a Dixon’s whiptail, all right.

The creature will be

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