Temperament
Despite its fierce appearance, Texas horny lizards are extremely docile creatures. Since they have very few natural predators, they are not at all aggressive, and will never bite. Captured horned lizards will lie completely limp in a human's hand or pocket, playing dead, so they made excellent pets before they were threatened. Today, it is illegal to disturb or keep a horned lizard without a state permit.
The Texas horned lizard is a sunbather, and requires bright sunlight to produce vitamin D. Deprived of sunlight, the animal will be unable to produce vitamin D and will suffer from vitamin deficiency. For this reason horned lizards are most often found along the side of roads or other open, rocky areas, where they can lounge and take in sunlight.
At night, the lizard buries itself in sand.
Otherwise, horned lizards are most often found near harvester ant hills. Although they prefer to move very little, horned lizards can move quite fast if they feel there is a predator in the area, and will dart into thick grass and foliage to escape. Horned lizards are also excellent diggers, and can quickly burrow underground to escape threats.
Read more about this topic: Texas Horned Lizard
Famous quotes containing the word temperament:
“Style [is] the hallmark of a temperament stamped on the material in hand.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Temperament is the natural, inborn style of behavior of each individual. It’s the how of behavior, not the why.... The question is not, “Why does he behave a certain way if he doesn’t get a cookie?” but rather, “When he doesn’t get a cookie, how does he express his displeasure...?” The environment—and your behavior as a parent—can influence temperament and interplay with it, but it is not the cause of temperamental characteristics.”
—Stanley Turecki (20th century)
“Although this garrulity of advising is born with us, I confess that life is rather a subject of wonder, than of didactics. So much fate, so much irresistible dictation from temperament and unknown inspiration enter into it, that we doubt we can say anything out of our own experience whereby to help each other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)