Although horned-toads are quite common in suitable habitats at lower elevations around Crater Lake National Park and at isolated localities in the Cascade Mountains (Gordon, 1939:68), they are obviously rare within the Park. Prior to this season there have been only two records for the Park (Farner and Kezer, M.S. 1951).

Pigmy Horned Toad. Photograph of a preserved specimen.

Campbell (1934:2) states that he saw a specimen "which had been caught by the CCC boys of the Wineglass Camp in the woods several miles down the Motorway which leaves Wineglass and goes toward the North boundary." This locality is in good horned-toad habitat. Unfortunately this specimen was not preserved. Joseph S. Dixon obtained a specimen (MVZ 40761) collected by James Tucker "on August 15, 1944, at 6000 feet on pumice desert 5 miles north of Crater Lake about half way between Grouse Hill and Timber Crater." We have searched this area for this lizard numerous times without success. One must not exclude the possibility that the specimen obtained by Dixon had escaped or was released by a visitor since the collecting locality is near a highway and since these little reptiles are frequently acquired and kept as pets.

On 26 June 1952 Park Naturalist Harry C. Parker and Assistant Park Naturalist Donald S. Farner collected a specimen (CLNP 523) along the Rim of Wheeler Creek Canyon at 5550 feet. Although this specimen was taken near the East Entrance Highway it can nevertheless be safely regarded as a legitimate record for the Park since the highway had not yet been opened to public travel for the season.

The horned-toads of Crater Lake National Park and vicinity are referred to Phrynosoma douglassii douglassii (Bell), the Pigmy Horned Toad (Farner and Kezer, M.S. 1951).

References

Campbell, Berry. 1934. Annotated list of the vertebrates of Crater Lake. Mimeographed, 22 pp.

Dixon, Joseph F. 1936-1945. Unpublished field notes recorded in Crater Lake National Park now in the files of the National Park Service, Region Four Office, San Francisco.

Farner, Donald S. and Kezer, James. 1951. Notes on the amphibians and reptiles of Crater Lake National Park. To appear in The American Midland Naturalist in 1953.

Gordon, Kenneth. 1939. The amphibia and reptilia of Oregon. Oregon State Monographs, Studies in Zoology, No. 3. 82 pp.