On Friday, May 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the dunes sagebrush lizard of southeastern New Mexico and West Texas to the list of endangered species.
The lizards are native to a small portion of the Permian Basin and have lost more than 95% of their habitat to oil and gas development and mining of sand.
Before the drilling boom, as early as 1982, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified the lizards as needing protection because of the destruction of their habitat for agriculture, but the services did not act until a 2022 lawsuit and legal agreement with the center that forced the agency to move.
The 2.5-inch-long dunes sagebrush lizard has the second-smallest range of any lizard in North America. The lizards inhabit a rare ecosystem where they hunt insects and spiders in wind-blown dunes. They burrow into the sand beneath low-lying shinnery oak shrubs for protection from extreme temperatures.
