What are some unique physical features of a blue tongue skink?
Blue-tongued skinks are smooth- scaled reptiles with large heads, long bodies, and very short legs. They can grow up to two feet long. These peculiar animals are active during the daytime, and just like other reptiles, they regulate their body temperature by warming up in the sun and cooling down in the shade.
How do blue tongue lizards live?
Blue-tongues usually live in open country with lots of ground cover such as tussocky grasses or leaf litter. They shelter at night among leaf litter or under large objects on the ground such as rocks and logs.
What do blue tongue lizards need to survive?
It’s not hard to make your garden blue-tongue lizard friendly. They just need is plenty of shelter and food. Lots of rocks and logs on the ground, piles of leaves, mulch, ground covers and low shrubs are ideal as beetles, spiders, snails and other critters will like the many moist and protected hidey-holes too.
What kind of environment do blue tongue skinks live?
Their habitat ranges from open woodlands, at the margins of forest and fields, and semi-desert habitats. These lizards spend most of their day foraging for food and basking under the sun light. They will also spend time burrowed under leaf litter and debris.
Do blue-tongues mate for life?
Blue-tongue lizards can live for more than 20 years and reach over 50cm in length. Most Shinglebacks have the same mate for their entire lives.
What is the difference between a blue tongue lizard and a blue tongue skink?
Blue-tongued skinks comprise the Australasian genus Tiliqua, which contains some of the largest members of the skink family (Scincidae). They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards or simply blue-tongues or blueys in Australia. The tongue also can also deform itself and produce a thick mucus in order to catch prey.
How do I know if my blue-tongue lizard is a boy or a girl?
Most of us have heard the basic tips and tricks: Males often have a larger and more triangular head, a thicker tail base, slimmer sides and a huskier throat than females. You may also have heard that males tend to have orange and more brightly colored eyes, whereas females are browner.
Can a blue-tongue lizard hurt a dog?
Blue-tongue lizards are not poisonous and do not pose any threat to people or their pets. In fact, they can be a very helpful friend to have around the garden as they eat snails and caterpillars and other insects and can help keep the population of these invertebrate garden pests down.
Do blue-tongue lizards live alone?
Common Blue-tongued Lizards are found right across Victoria. Blue-tongues live alone for most of the year, but between September and November, males leave their territory in search of a mate. Males can travel up to 15 city blocks in their search and may have several families.
Do blue tongues mate for life?
Do blue tongue skinks eat live insects?
Blue Tongue Skinks are omnivorous reptiles, in the wild, they eat a varied diet of dead animals, live bugs, fruits, vegetables, berries, blossoms and other foods that they may happen to come across.
Do blue-tongue lizards like being handled?
A: Blue-tongue lizards generally do not like to be handled, but if you need to move a lizard in your yard, and it isn’t in a spot where you can gently sweep it into a box, you may need to pick it up.
What kind of body does a blue tongue lizard have?
Blue tongues have somewhat unusual body proportions: a big head and long body with very short legs and small feet. Their evenly tapering tail is fat and shorter than the body. Male lizards have a proportionally larger head than females, but the females are bigger overall.
What kind of body does a blue tongue skink have?
Skink Lizards have a hard outer skin with is full of dark and light brown colors, the patterns on a male blue tongue skinks are usually more prominent than that of a female. In addition to this, this specie of reptile has a disproportionate body in the sense that they are usually chubbier around the necks as compared to the rest of the body.
How long does it take for a blue tongue lizard to give birth?
They can be quite aggressive towards each other and can end up with cuts and scratches but this is normal mating behaviour. The female blue-tongue gives birth to live young three to four months after mating, which is very unusual in lizards as they normally lay eggs.
What kind of habitat do Blue Tongues Live in?
Blue tongues have a habit of latching onto your finger and not letting go, which leaves you with a nice bruise. Blue-tongues occur across most of Australia. They like open country with lots of cover like tall grasses, leaf litter, rocks and logs, low shrubs etc. under which they will shelter at night.