The white stuff they are mopping up is no ordinary nasal mucus.<\/p>\n
When the chukwalla<\/a> ‘goes achoo’, it sneezes out salt. If the large lizard didn’t do this, it would probably die of dehydration in the deserts of North America.<\/p>\n The specially salty snot is sometimes nicknamed ‘snalt’, as it contains potassium and sodium<\/a> bicarbonate salts that dry as crystals. The species is often seen with white residue<\/a> around its nostrils, a remnant of an earlier snort.<\/p>\n Without this mucosal mess, the large lizard might very well ‘overdose’ on salt.<\/p>\n The chukwalla’s diet in the desert consists mainly of salty plants, and it rarely drinks water<\/a>. Most of its hydration comes through food.<\/p>\n As such, the creature has evolved special glands that filter salt from its body, expelling the excess through the nose to prevent dehydration.<\/p>\n Some other lizard species with similarly salty diets also spray snalt, like marine iguanas in the Galapagos, which feed on algae<\/a>, and mangrove monitor lizards<\/a>, which can actually drink saltwater.<\/p>\n But the chuckwalla doesn’t live near the coast. This lizard dwells in rocky desert habitats like Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth.<\/p>\n Still, the lizard has no fear of the heat. It hibernates during winter and is most active during the day, when summer temperatures<\/a> can reach 49 \u00b0C (120 \u00b0F).<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758424687_638_0.jpg\")
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