Ecological significance of the Owyhee Desert: Saltbrush-greasewood vegetation and the strange distribution range of some desert-loving Great Basin reptile species in southern Idaho
Take a look at these fascinating distribution ranges of reptile species that mostly live in “desert-like” biomes, yet have small populations that extend into a narrow corridor in southern Idaho. These animals have used a corridor of desert-like vegetation to follow the Owyhee River canyon into a small pocket of southwestern Idaho, south of Boise.
Here’s a look at the Owyhee River canyon in Oregon, very close to the Idaho border. This is the river that partially allows saltbrush-greasewood vegetation to extend northward from the Great Basin and into Idaho. (Photo by US BLM.)
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Here are 4 lovely reptiles that best represent this phenomenon.
Great Basin collared lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores):
Great Basin whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris tigris):
Variable groundsnake (Sonora semiannulata):
Long-nosed snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei):
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Here are their distribution ranges.
You can see that these reptiles generally live in the Great Basin of central Nevada, as well as in Arizona, Utah, or New Mexico - regions dominated by “true” deserts like the Sonoran Desert, Mojave Desert, and Chihuahuan Desert. However, each of these species has a distribution range that extends along a narrow corridor into southwestern Idaho.
Great Basin collared lizard:
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Great Basin whiptail:
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Variable groundsnake:
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Long-nosed snake:
(All of the reptile photos and distribution maps come from the wonderful Gary Nafis of California Herps. The site is a fantastic resource for learning about amphibians and reptiles in the Pacific Northwest and California.)
Weird.
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Here’s a big part of why this happened.
These are maps of “potential natural vegetation” which basically depict the distribution of vegetation biomes before alteration and degradation by Euro-American colonizers.
The base layer here comes from the great map created by Kuchler and friends (1970).
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Here’s a look at the Owyhee Canyonlands region, which includes sub-regions like the Owyhee Desert. (Map by Wikimedia contributor Shannon1, here.)
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Here’s a look at shadscale saltbrush (Atriplex confertifolia), an important species in this biome. (Photo by Great Basin Seeds.)
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Here’s a look at greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus). (Photo by Wikimedia user Cory Msylett.)
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Here’s a look at a typical saltbrush-greasewood environment in Idaho’s so-called Owyhee Desert area. (Photo by summitpost user gr8basin.)
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Here’s another view of the Owyhee Desert near the border of Oregon and Idaho. (Photo by Hart Images, at Fine Art America.)
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Much of the Owyhee River is formally designated as a Wild and Scenic River. Here’s a view of the canyon and some desert vegetation from Owyhee Canyon Overlook. (Photo by US BLM.)
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