Sceloporus orcutti
Silhouette: SeismicShrimp · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The granite spiny lizard (Sceloporus orcutti), also known commonly as la espinosa del granito in Mexican Spanish, is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is native to the southwestern United States and adjacent northwestern Mexico. There are no subspecies.
The epithet, orcutti, honors American naturalist Charles Russell Orcutt (1864–1929), who collected the type specimen in San Diego County, California. Sceloporus orcutti is native to extreme southern California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico.
The granite spiny lizard usually has a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 7.6–10.8 cm (3.0–4.3 in). The maximum recorded total length (tail included) is 28.9 cm (11.4 in). The dorsal scales are strongly keeled and pointed on both the body and the tail. It has a wide purple mid-dorsal stripe. The male of the species has yellow-green and blue-centered scales on the body; the female and juveniles have distinct yellow-tan transverse bands on the body and tail. Additionally, the male has deep-blue ventral patches on its chest and throat, and it has femoral pores.
The granite... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bahía de Loreto National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Granite Spiny Lizard sighting in Bahía de Loreto National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 14th most-seen of the 20 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and September
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Granite Spiny Lizard in Bahía de Loreto National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, April, June–August and October–December, the lowest months. Those are among Bahía de Loreto National Park's wettest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month against almost none in April.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Granite Spiny Lizard sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Bahía de Loreto National Park, in our data
Bahía de Loreto National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Granite Spiny Lizard sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Granite Spiny Lizard is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Bahía de Loreto National Park (12 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
