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It seems that carrot tailed chucks only reside on South Mountain.
https://www.12news.com/article/life/ani ... hrrMb_Vsdw
https://www.macrophotobug.com/carrot-ta ... a-herping/

Will wait for further confirmation from Gummley

Are the tails always orange, or only seasonally?

@big_load
Only the males on SoMo have orange tails. Orange year round, but seem to get brighter based on diet.

LindaAnn wrote: ↑Sep 03 2024 10:54 am @big_load
Only the males on SoMo have orange tails. Orange year round, but seem to get brighter based on diet.

In that case, I haven't unknowingly seen one.

I guess that's not surprising, I don't hike at South Mountain too often. Most of the chuckwallas I've seen were elsewhere.

@Alston_Neal
Old news to me... shortly after I moved to AZ almost 2 decades ago I had taken photos of chuckwallas on Pass Mountain (Usery Park) and on my first hike on South Mountain I saw the difference first-hand.
Not long after that I met the ranger at Usery Park and asked about the tail color and was told the chuckwallas on South Mountain were unique when it came to tail color.

Recent pics of the male and female in my backyard. They always wait on the fence for food. And I’m frequently retrieving them from my dog’s mouth, she likes to carry them around, which always becomes chaotic when she tries to bring them inside the house.

I live on Black Mountain and no Carrot Tails up here. Females here are all gray with a tan underbelly. The adult males have yellow tails with a salmon colored torso and gray head. The female in photo three is very pregnant.

LosDosSloFolks wrote:The female in photo three is very pregnant.

I made this exact same observation with a photo of a human female once, and learned this is not permitted.

@chumley
I learned early on that one should never comment on the likelihood of a woman's pregnancy unless you physically witness a baby emerging from the womb.

^^^^^^^^^ Yes it is very important that men learn basic survival skills.

I can't count the number of times I've hiked on South Mountain, and I've never seen a chuckwalla. Just a single rattlesnake; lots of coyotes, but no chuckwallas. Am I blind or just... unobservant?

Mid to late morning in the spring
Mormon trail
You'll see some

trekkin_gecko wrote:Mormon trail

Thanks for the tip. I've hiked the Mormon LOOP trail lots of times, but never the actual Mormon Trail itself.

@garyc57
try 10am May 18th through the 28th

Mormon, mormon loop, national, mormon
Not so much on mormon loop, but the rest of the five mile lasso will have some
Late march into may

They love those black rocks after a chilly night and morning. They are the definition of South Phoenix Sunbathers.

The only one I've ever seen was out the window of the restaurant at Marriott Phoenix resort, well away from south mountain, and it definitely had the orange tail

@overthehillsfaraway
The Marriott has a pretty large international appeal. Maybe it worked there.