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Blotched blue-tongued lizard

Tiliqua nigrolutea

Photo by Mark Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Hisses and reveals a wavy blue tipped tongue in a pink mouth to scare off potential threats. It worked for me. :-) A very large skink approximately 330mm long. Distinctive split and symmetrical blotchy pattern in very dark brown and cream over the whole length of the lizard.

Habitat:

Resting in low grasses in a dry eucalyptus forest.

Notes:

At first I thought it was dead so I could get some really cloe-up shots but hen it suddenly flashed it's tongue and hissed so I suspect the temperature was keeping it subdued. Distribution is most of Victoria and Tasmania http://spatial.ala.org.au/?q=lsid:%22urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.t… Closely related to tiliqua scincoides but that species has a very different pattern on it's back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Blue-tongued_Skink

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (7)

Hey Harry have you ever studied the organised way they eat a snail. Great to watch them check it out, turn it around, crack it one way then the other and then somehow the shell just falls off. Experts !! Ours (Tiliqua scincoides) love strawberries too.
Also I had two in my school garden
I used to have two of them in my back yard, they loved popcorn!

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