Field Guide

The pickerel frog is medium-sized, with square or rectangular spots in two parallel rows down the back. There is a distinct ridge of skin along each side of the back. It is absent from the northwestern third of Missouri.

Prairie racerunners are fast, alert, ground-dwelling lizards. They live in open areas like fields, grasslands, and rocky, south-facing hillsides, including Ozark glades. They are related to the whiptail lizards that live in the western United States.

The prairie lizard is a small, gray to brown, rough-scaled lizard common in open forests. It often lives around country homes and rock gardens and on stacks of firewood and split rail fences.

The Great Plains skink is a large, tan or light brown lizard with most of the scales edged in black, making it look speckled. These markings may form irregular lines along the back and sides. In Missouri, it's found only in our far western and southwestern counties.

The lined snake looks similar to a gartersnake. It is brown to grayish brown, with three lighter-colored stripes down the length of its body and a double row of half-moon-shaped markings along the belly. It occurs mainly in the northwestern part of the state, along the northern border, with a separate population in the St. Louis area.