Australian Blue Tongue Lizard

[Bretrick]

Blue Tongue Lizards grow to 45cm - 18".
This one is about 10" - 25cm.
When disturbed they will stay still until the perceived threat is no more. It will then go about it's business.
They are very well camouflaged among the leaf litter. Very easy to tread on one. I must be very careful before placing each foot step.
The bird calls heard here are of the Forest Red Tailed Black Cockatoo with a Kookaburra chiming in.

 

[hollydolly]

Thanks for that Bretrick.. how much zzoom did you have to use to capture this little guy so he didn't know you were there ?

 

[Bretrick]

Thanks for that Bretrick.. how much zzom did you have to use to capture this little guy so he didn't know you were there ?

He knew I was there. I was no more than 6 feet from him. That is why it stayed still for an amount of time. When the perceived threat proves to be no threat, then it can get about it's business

 

[Warrigal]

The scales are more rugged than our blue tongues over in the east. Is that a stumpy tail?

 

[Bretrick]

The scales are more rugged than our blue tongues over in the east. Is that a stumpy tail?

Stumpy Tails are Shinglebacks.
More rugged scales than this one.

 

[StillLearning]

Thank you for the video. From the background noises it appears this is from a neighborhood and not way out in the wilderness. How common is it to see these lizards?

 

[Twostep]

Interesting fellow. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Bretrick]

Thank you for the video. From the background noises it appears this is from a neighborhood and not way out in the wilderness. How common is it to see these lizards?

These lizards are all over suburbia and the native bush. This one lives at Breckler Park nature reserve, 2km from where I live.

 

[Della]

I'm glad he made it for Christmas.

 

[Kadee]

Took This photo this morning of my resident sleepy lizard @Bretrick
Its coolish is SA today for a summers day ( 24c ) ,so I was surprised to see him out and about ….I know why he’s out …..and he’s just about on his last warning ….he likes nibbling on my freshly formed young butternut pumpkins
its evident by the teeth marks in them

 

[Bretrick]

Took This photo this morning of my resident sleepy lizard @Bretrick
Its coolish is SA today for a summers day ( 24c ) ,so I was surprised to see him out and about ….I know why he’s out …..and he’s just about on his last warning ….he likes nibbling on my freshly formed young butternut pumpkins
its evident by the teeth marks in them

View attachment 393693

What a beautiful specimen. Thank you for posting.

 

[papa tiger]

Sammy my Salamander who lives in the stones and rocks in the front of the house does that too.
When you first spot him you think its a Cottonmouth until you notice his front legs. He's full
grown now tip to tail around 15" long. I noticed a young Samantha last summer here.

I had a gecko in the 80's. grew to around 10" but Never saw him move. He fell and broke a leg and died.
He'd like to climb and had interweaved large rope in his room of 12' x 8'. I often thought about how he had
fallen, he was sure footed. He was usually pointed up or level. He never failed to delight in where he was when
I opened the door to chuckle.

 

[Kadee]

A fairly close up photo so one can see the shingles @Bretrick explained in his first post

this one of mine is fairly shiny cause he loves a good life , he loves tomoto …yep seen him in the act of munching on tomotoes / a Few apples have fallen off tree and he likes them …they would be to sour for our tastes

Just judging by the length of the house bricks he’d be 37 cm long or about .14.1/2 inches

 

[dusty]

We had small skinks around here when I was a kid. If they got scared or excited their tail would fall off.

 

[Kadee]

We had small skinks around here when I was a kid. If they got scared or excited their tail would fall off.

We still see a very odd one here in South Australia @dusty mainly around where we store our sawn wood for winter

 

[Warrigal]

I have lots of tiny skinks in my garden. As children we called them sun lizards.