25-526: Frederick Benjamin Gipson (February 7, 1908 – August 14, 1973) was an American writer and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the 1956 novel Old Yeller , which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film. Gipson was born on a farm near Mason in the Texas Hill Country , the son of Beck Gipson and Emma Deishler. After working at a variety of farming and ranching jobs, he enrolled in 1933 at
50-487: A Blue Lacy , the state dog of Texas . In the Disney film adaptation Yeller was portrayed by a yellow Labrador Retriever / Mastiff mix. The new puppy becomes the title character of the follow-up book Savage Sam (1962) and 1963 film adaptation . A third book, Little Arliss (1978), is set after the first two and features Travis' younger brother. Horned lizard Phrynosoma , whose members are known as
75-463: A Working Cowboy , The Trail-Driving Rooster , and Recollection Creek . His novel Old Yeller won the Newbery honor, and was adapted into a 1957 Walt Disney Studios film . Old Yeller has two sequels – Savage Sam (1962), which also became a Walt Disney film in 1963, and Little Arliss , published posthumously in 1978. Old Yeller was the novel that Gipson considered his best work. Set in
100-426: A bear, Travis from a bunch of wild hogs, and Mama and their friend Lisbeth from a wolf. Travis grows to love Old Yeller, and they become great friends. The rightful owner of Yeller shows up looking for his dog. He recognizes that the family has become attached to Yeller, so he trades the dog to Arliss for a horned toad and a home-cooked meal prepared by Travis' mother. Old Yeller is bitten while saving his family from
125-431: A cattle drive. A "dingy yellow" dog comes to the family and Travis reluctantly takes it in; they name him Old Yeller. The name has a double meaning: the fur color yellow pronounced as "yeller", and the fact that its bark sounds more like a human yell. Travis initially loathes the "rascal" and at first tries to get rid of it, but the dog eventually proves his worth, saving the family on several occasions: rescuing Arliss from
150-430: A number of factors, including the fragmentation and loss of habitat from real estate development and road construction, the planting of non-native grasses (both suburban and rural), conversion of native land to pastureland and agricultural uses, and pesticides. Additionally predation by domestic dogs and cats place continued pressure upon horned lizards. Fire ants ( Solenopsis invicta ), introduced from South America via
175-471: A rabid wolf. Travis cannot risk Old Yeller becoming rabid and turning on the family, and has to kill the dog. Old Yeller had puppies, and one of them helps Travis get over Old Yeller's death. They take in the new dog and try to make a fresh start. Old Yeller in the novel is described as being a "yellow cur". It has been claimed that the dog was actually modeled after the Yellow or Southern Black Mouth Cur or
200-552: Is a 1956 children's novel written by Fred Gipson and illustrated by Carl Burger . It received a Newbery Honor in 1957. In 1957, Walt Disney released a film adaptation starring Tommy Kirk , Fess Parker , Dorothy McGuire , Kevin Corcoran , Jeff York , and Beverly Washburn . Travis Coates has been working to take care of his family ranch in the late 1860s in the fictional town of Salt Licks, Texas , with his mother and younger brother Arliss, while his father goes off on
225-780: Is the “Horn Toad”, the greater short-horned lizard ( Phrynosoma hernandesi ). The " TCU Horned Frog " is the mascot of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. The "Horned Toad" is also the mascot for Coalinga High School in Coalinga, California. This school is located in Western Central California and its arid region is home to the San Diego Horned Lizard, which is protected. The City of Coalinga hosts an annual "Horned Toad Derby" on Memorial day weekend which features horned toad races,
250-500: Is to remain motionless to avoid detection. If approached too closely, they generally run in short bursts and stop abruptly to confuse the predator's visual acuity. If this fails, they puff up their bodies to cause them to appear more horned and larger so that they are more difficult to swallow. At least eight species ( P. asio , P. cornutum , P. coronatum , P. ditmarsi , P. hernandesi , P. orbiculare , P. solare , and P. taurus ) are also able to squirt an aimed stream of blood from
275-527: The Reptile Database , three species of which have recognized subspecies : Note : In the above list, a binomial authority or trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species or subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Phrynosoma . Texas designated the Texas horned lizard ( Phrynosoma cornutum ) as the official state reptile in 1993. Wyoming’s state reptile
SECTION 10
#1732791844938300-518: The University of Texas at Austin . There he wrote for the Daily Texan and The Ranger , but he left school before graduating to become a newspaper journalist. In the 1940s, Gipson began writing short stories with a western theme, which proved to be prototypes for his longer works of fiction that followed. In 1946, his first full-length book, The Fabulous Empire: Colonel Zack Miller's Story ,
325-577: The horned lizards , horny toads , or horntoads , is a genus of North American lizards and the type genus of the family Phrynosomatidae . Their common names refer directly to their horns or to their flattened, rounded bodies, and blunt snouts. The generic name Phrynosoma means "toad-bodied". In common with true toads ( amphibians of the family Bufonidae ), horned lizards tend to move sluggishly, often remain motionless, and rely on their remarkable camouflage to avoid detection by predators. They are adapted to arid or semiarid areas. The spines on
350-630: The Texas Hill Country in the 1860s just after the American Civil War , the story is about the 14-year-old boy Travis Coates (played by Tommy Kirk in the film) left in charge of the household while his father is away. Old Yeller, a stray dog adopted by the boy, helps in the formidable task of protecting the family on the Texas Ranch. Old Yeller was based on a Deishler family dog named "Rattler" and unlike Old Yeller , Rattler
375-436: The blood from glands in the ocular sinus cavity, current research has shown that the chemical compounds that make up the defense are already in the circulating blood. It is possible that their diet of large quantities of venomous harvester ants could be a factor; however, the origin and structure of the chemicals responsible are still unknown. The blood-squirting mechanism increases survival after contact with canine predators;
400-644: The collected lizards. In 1967, the state of Texas passed protective legislation preventing the collection, exportation, and sale of Phrynosoma , and by the early 1970s, most states enacted similar laws to protect and conserve horned lizards in the USA. As recently as the early 2000s, though, the state of Nevada still allowed commercial sale of Phrynosoma species. Despite limited federal protection in Mexico , horned lizards are still offered in Mexican "pet" markets throughout
425-603: The corners of the eyes for a distance up to 5 ft (1.5 m). They do this by restricting the blood flow leaving the head, thereby increasing blood pressure and rupturing tiny vessels around the eyelids . The blood not only confuses predators but also tastes foul to canine and feline predators. It appears to have no effect against predatory birds . Only three closely related species ( P. mcallii , P. modestum , and P. platyrhinos ) are certainly known to either be unable to squirt blood or only do it extremely rarely. While previous thought held that compounds were added to
450-842: The country. In 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson petitioned the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to have the Texas horned lizard put on the endangered species list due to the massive decline of its population in Oklahoma, where it was once plentiful. The center said it may later seek protection for the animal on a federal level; it also said that reptiles in general are dying off at up to 10,000 times their historic extinction rate, greatly due to human influences. The following 21 species (listed alphabetically by scientific name) are recognized as being valid by
475-475: The head or neck, a horned lizard ducks or elevates its head and orients its cranial horns straight up, or back. If a predator tries to take it by the body, the lizard drives that side of its body down into the ground so the predator cannot easily get its lower jaw underneath. A University of Texas publication notes that horned lizard populations continue to disappear throughout their distribution despite protective legislation. Population declines are attributed to
500-630: The lizard's back and sides are modified reptile scales , which prevent water loss through the skin, whereas the horns on the head are true horns (i.e., they have a bony core). A urinary bladder is absent. Of the 21 species of horned lizards, 15 are native to the USA. The largest-bodied and most widely distributed of the American species is the Texas horned lizard . Horned lizards use a variety of means to avoid predation . Their coloration generally serves as camouflage . When threatened, their first defense
525-553: The native species on which the lizards prey, contribute to the continued displacement of native ant species and the decline of horned lizards. The Texas horned lizard ( Phrynosoma cornutum ) has disappeared from almost half of its geographic range. Their popularity in the early to mid-20th-century pet trade, where collectors took thousands from the wild populations to sell to pet distributors, without provision for their highly specialized nutritional needs (primarily formic acid from harvester ants), resulted in certain death for almost all
SECTION 20
#1732791844938550-442: The nursery industry's potted plants, pose a significant threat to all wildlife including horned lizards. Phrynosoma species do not eat fire ants. Fire ants kill many species of wildlife, and are fierce competitors against the native ants, which horned lizards require for food (with their specialized nutritional content). Fire ants have given all ants a bad reputation, and human attempts to eradicate ants, including invasive species and
575-418: The trait may provide an evolutionary advantage. Ocular autohemorrhaging has also been documented in other lizards, which suggests blood-squirting could have evolved from a less extreme defense in the ancestral branch of the genus. Recent phylogenic research supports this claim, so the species incapable of squirting blood apparently have lost the adaptation for reasons yet unstudied. To avoid being picked up by
600-417: Was a dark-colored Border Collie . On June 14, 1962, Mike Gipson, Fred Gipson's son, found the Gipson family dog, the inspiration for Savage Sam , chained and clubbed to death in a shed behind the new family home. The next day, Mike returned to university in shock, and committed suicide that weekend. Gipson's wife would leave him a month after the premiere of Savage Sam . Old Yeller Old Yeller
625-506: Was published. Hound-Dog Man , published in 1947, established Gipson's reputation when it became a Doubleday Book-of-the-Month Club selection and sold over 250,000 copies in its first year of publication. It was made into a film in 1959. His additional works included The Home Place (later filmed as Return of the Texan , a 1952 Western starring Dale Robertson and Joanne Dru ), Big Bend: A Homesteader's Story , Cowhand: The Story of
#937062