Zebra-tailed lizard (Callisaurus draconoides), at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

This lizard was a wild inhabitant of the outdoor exhibits at the museum. Obviously a baby, he was only about 3 cm long from snout to vent. And the whole time I watched him he kept sinuously waving his tail. The tail-wagging behavior might be a way of signaling to predators, “I see you. I’m prepared to run. Don’t waste your efforts on me.”  Zebra-tails can sacrifice their tails and regenerate new ones through a process called caudal autotomy, so the curled tail displays may be a way of suggesting to predators, “Go for the wriggling bit, and leave my innards alone.” 

Zebra-tailed lizard (Callisaurus draconoides), at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

This lizard was a wild inhabitant of the outdoor exhibits at the museum. Obviously a baby, he was only about 3 cm long from snout to vent. And the whole time I watched him he kept sinuously waving his tail. The tail-wagging behavior might be a way of signaling to predators, “I see you. I’m prepared to run. Don’t waste your efforts on me.”  Zebra-tails can sacrifice their tails and regenerate new ones through a process called caudal autotomy, so the curled tail displays may be a way of suggesting to predators, “Go for the wriggling bit, and leave my innards alone.”