Elgaria kingii
Silhouette: Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The Madrean alligator lizard (Elgaria kingii), also known commonly as King's alligator lizard and el lagarto de montaña in Mexican Spanish, is a species of lizard in the family Anguidae. The species is native to the southwestern United States and adjacent northwestern Mexico.
The specific name, kingii, is in honor of Phillip Parker King, an Australian-born Royal Navy officer who surveyed the coast of South America. E. kingii is found from southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, United States, southward to Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, southeastern Zacatecas, and southwestern Aguascalientes, Mexico.
E. kingii is found in a variety of habitats including desert, grassland, shrubland, and forest. E. kingii is oviparous. Three subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies. Elgaria kingii ferruginea (Webb, 1962)
Baird... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
No species of the same family or order lives in Saguaro National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other reptiles.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Arizona Alligator Lizard sighting in Saguaro National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 45th most-seen of the 51 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August to November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Arizona Alligator Lizard in Saguaro National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to July, the lowest months.
Between 5 and 8 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Arizona Alligator Lizard sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Saguaro National Park, in our data
Saguaro National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Arizona Alligator Lizard sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Arizona Alligator Lizard is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Saguaro National Park (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.
