Rate of Adoption and Comparison To Other Symbols
In 1969, Oklahoma designated the first state reptile when it chose the common collared lizard or "mountain boomer". Two states followed suit in the 1970s, seven states in the 1980s, eight states in the 1990s, and eight states in the 2000s. As of January 2011, twenty-six of the fifty states have named a state reptile; none has yet been named in the 2010s.
In contrast to state reptiles, state birds have been more rapidly adopted, with the first state designating one in 1927 and the fiftieth in 1973. As of January 2011, other types of animals more popular for state symbolization were mammals (46), fish (45), and insects (42). Animal symbols less popular than reptiles were butterflies (17), amphibians (17), dogs (11), dinosaurs (5), bats (3), and crustaceans (3).
In their almanac of U.S. state symbols, Benjamin and Barbara Shearer spend comparatively little text on state reptiles. They spend a full chapter each on state birds, trees and flowers; within those chapters, they take about a half page to describe the campaign to establish each state's specific symbol. Reptiles, on the other hand, are shown only in list format in a chapter titled "Miscellaneous", where the other non-bird animals (and many non-animals) are listed. Shearer and Shearer consider the state reptiles to be part of a "last thirty years" phenomenon (written in 2003) that includes such particular items as a state's "official beverage".
Read more about this topic: U.S. State Reptiles
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—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
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