We don t see any signs that alfalfa production is going to decrease in this state, she says. Skaggs also notes that the cost of trucking hay does not appear to be a barrier to dairy industry growth. Fuel is very cheap at the current time, she says. There s no indication that the cost of fuel is going to increase and provide an impediment to moving hay. Leaping lizards Esther Nelson, an NMSU wildlife graduate student, is becoming an expert on lizard behavior.
Whiptail lizards bolt in straight lines across the desert floor.
Side-blotched lizards start and stop in zigzag routes. To defend their territory, many lizards do push-ups. Nelson s knowledge of lizards comes from more than just reading a pile of wildlife textbooks. She s spent hours watching them as part of her work with Mark Andersen, a wildlife scientist with NMSU s Agricultural Experiment Station. The researchers are studying how human disturbance affects lizard populations.