Baby Monster

Found this baby Gila Monster inside our screen door this morning on my way to get the newspaper. He was about four inches long.

The fat tail and the scales are clues to identification. This fellow is quite young and probably just out of the egg although he could be a month old.

He was wiggling quite a bit when I first moved him outdoors, probably having just encountered the pest control chemical barrier. Then he became still. The chemical barrier is non-toxic to humans and pets (except pet gila monsters) as it is made up of an extract from chrysanthemum. Later when I moved him off the sidewalk with my toe, his tail fell off and it started wiggling again.

According to Wikipedia, in the name Heloderma suspectum Heloderma means "studded skin", from the Ancient Greek words Helos (????), "the head of a nail or stud", and derma (?????), "skin". Gila refers to the Gila River Basin in Arizona, where they were once plentiful.