WHO: Scientists at the San Antonio Zoo (and partners across the state and nation).WHAT: Fifty newly freed lizard hatchlings in Blanco County.WHY IT’S SO GREAT:The Texas horned lizard, affectionately called the horny toad or horned frog, is in trouble. The population of the official Texas state reptile has steeply declined in the Texas Triangle—the region bounded by the state’s biggest cities, where more than 70 percent of Texans live—to the consternation of not just biologists but also Texans who grew up seeing the spiky, four-inch-long critters everywhere. “The most common calls and questions I received from the public when I was the state herpetologist [a scientist who studies reptiles and amphibians] for Texas Parks and Wildlife were related to horned lizards,” Andy Gluesenkamp told me. “ ‘What…
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