Pine cone lizard
| Pine cone lizard | ||||||||||||
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Pine cone lizard ( Tiliqua rugosa ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tiliqua rugosa | ||||||||||||
| ( Gray , 1825) |
The pine cone lizard ( Tiliqua rugosa , syn .: Trachydosaurus rugosus ) is a reptile from the skink family that occurs quite frequently in the south and west of Australia . Other names are Tannenzapfenskink or Stutzechse . English names are shingle back , bobtail lizard or, due to their appearance and the animals' low tendency to flee , sleepy lizard .
Appearance
The scale dress is brown to black or reddish, with some subspecies with light transverse bands. The lizards are 35 to 40 cm long. The animal is reminiscent of a pine cone because of its compact shape with a short tail and short legs, but above all because of the rough, greatly enlarged and keeled scales . The thick tail serves as a fat store.
Way of life
Pine cone lizards feed mainly on plants and fruits, but also on snails , insects and worms . In winter and spring the food supply is large, in the dry summer the animals partly feed on their fat reserves.
The skinks are quite sluggish and initially do not usually flee from approaching people. Instead, they threaten with their mouths wide open and tongue out, which is wide and strikingly blue. This gives the genus Tiliqua the name " blue tongue skink ". The lizards live in dry bushland and like to sunbathe on the streets, where their sluggish escape behavior can easily be their undoing.
Reproduction
The mating season is in October and November, in the spring of Australia. The skinks are viviparous and often only have one or two young after a gestation period of around four months. The young are about half as long as the mother at birth.
literature
- Manfred Rogner: Echsen 2 , Ulmer Verlag, ISBN 3-8001-7253-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Frankfurt Zoo: Pine cone lizard