Tuesday 9 January 2018

Blue-Tongue

During a brief wander at Studley Park this week, I stumbled upon a Blue-Tongue lizard - in fact a Blotched Blue-Tongue (Tiliqua nigrolutea) if we want to be specific.

Blue-Tongues are large skinks - with this animal being about 45cm long.  As is the way with these animals, it was really doing all that much - just passing through as it looked for food.

When I was checking through the images I took at home, I noticed the two creamy white objects behind the lizards from leg. (Best seen in the 3rd picture) With the help of some people on a reptile forum I was able to find out that they are ticks - apparently most blue-tongues carry a few.  When I found this out, my toes curled up a bit!

In the second picture, you can see why these skinks are known as blue-tongues!





More pictures from around the world at Our World Tuesday.  SM

13 comments:

  1. He looks too much like a snake for me..Ticks too..yucky..Have a fun week..

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  2. Awesome snake shots!

    Happy Week to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  3. Hari OM
    I had a 'tame' blue-tongue in my compost heap in Sydney. My dog and cat were friendly with it and it ate all the snails which plagued my mailbox. Useful little tackers! YAM xx

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  4. Those ticks are quite a size. I always imagined them not to be visible to the naked eye. Great spot though Stewart.

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  5. I love the Blue-tongue, Stewart, but I'm not so keen on the ticks. I'm very wary of them now. I was ill for a couple of months when I got three tick nymphs on my hand after putting it down in grass at Machu-Picchu! I know someone who's a 'tick magnet' - he goes to Scotland every year and seems to get one or more most years! Greetings from UK - - Richard

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  6. That is a lorge one. I would probably be scared if I met one. We don´t have any like that. :)
    No tics is fun!

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  7. Ticks! Yuck!
    But those are great photos of an interesting animal.
    Have a wonderful week!

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  8. Its tongue is oh so blue! Tics seem to infest even wild lizards! Great photos.

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  9. cool critter.

    Ick, for his traveling companions.

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  10. Poor thing! I hate ticks!!!! I've seen pictures of deer with their faces just covered! It's so horrible. Loved your photos...you got a great shot of his blue tongue!

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  11. I agree with most of the folks above - I am not a big fan of ticks! I must admit I have never seen a white tick! I will focus on the lizard, ok?

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