Enyalioides laticeps
Silhouette: Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Enyalioides laticeps, the Amazon broad-headed wood lizard, is a dwarf iguanian lizard found abundantly in Amazonian rainforests. They are semi-arboreal. Other common names for these lizards include big-headed stick lizards (lagartijas de palo de cabezonas), Guichenot's dwarf iguana, Amazon dwarf-iguana (Iguana enana amazónica), and Amazon forest dragon.
E. laticeps is a small, ornamented lizard that grows up to 157 millimetres (6.2 in) long and features a very high vertebral crest along its back. They may change color based on environmental factors and rely on rapid running to move around, though they spend the vast majority of their time motionless, blending into the rainforest background (branches, palm fronds) and ambushing prey. When attacked by predators, E. laticeps may remain motionless like a wood stick to avoid predation. If discovered, it may suddenly spring into motion, quickly retreating to burrows in the ground.
The Amazon broad-headed wood lizard has at least sixteen close relatives, most of them found in Amazonian rainforests, such as the red-eyed dwarf-iguana (Enyalioides oshaughnessyi), blue-spotted dwarf-iguana (E. praestabilis), red-throated dwarf... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
No species of the same family or order lives in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, so these are its closest relatives here: other reptiles.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Broad-headed Woodlizard sighting in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 14th most-seen of the 21 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Broad-headed Woodlizard in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, May, July and September–December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Broad-headed Woodlizard sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Broad-headed Woodlizard sightings, Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Broad-headed Woodlizard is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (7 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.
