Fat and healthy, a Pinto Chuckwalla at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
This, Sauromalus varius, the largest species of the genus, is restricted in distribution to the small island of San Esteban in the northeastern Gulf of California. This heavy bodied lizard can attain an overall length in excess of 2 feet and has reportedly attained an adult size of 3 feet. Like other chuckwalla species, this is a lizard of rocky habitats and when threatened is quick to seek safety beneath boulders or in rock-crevices.

The lizards depicted herein are in the captive population that has been at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ since 1977. This facility has succeeded in reproducing the species on several occasions.

Hued in pale gray overlain with patches of sandy tan, like other “chucks” this iguanian taxon is predominantly vegetarian, feeding on the flowers and leaves of creosote bush, cacti, and other arid land flora.
It is a federally endangered species.