Back in 2013 I spotted my first Gila Monster. Original post and video below.
I think he may have returned or at least one of his friends. I understand they can live up to 30 years!
I am so excited to see one again. They are a “Nearly Endangered” speices and from what I understand they are protected.
Unfortunately, so many people do not understand them and kill them when they see them. Hopefully from these videos you will respect and love this amazing animal.
Post from my original encounter back in 2013
This evening I took a break from my work to go out and take some pictures.
I setup my camera on the peninsula that sticks out above the wash behind my house. As I was setting up my camera I realized the shot would be even better with my graduated ND filter.
So as I typically do I ran back towards the house to get it. I jumped over the small retaining wall and to my a amazement about 6 inches from where my foot landed was a Gila Monster.
It scared me to death. The lizard did not really do anything. He just kind of froze there.
When I got into the house I said forget redoing the sun set time lapse I setup and grabbed my cheapo pocket video camera instead. I went back out and filmed the guy for about 10 minutes (video above).
I would have loved to get a closer shot but my Camera could not zoom farther and I was not going to risk getting to close. The shots were from about 10 feet away.
He did not seem to mind me too much but then again you cannot really read a lizards brain. As I started to walk away (mind you backwards with an eye on him) he walked off.
Then about a hour later when I went back to grab my camera from the desert the lizard was gone.
Such is the story of my first encounter with the elusive Gila Monster 🙂 It was actually pretty darn cool to see one!