Nowhere else in the world is
there as many
lizards in one country as there is in Australia.
They particularly like dry
outback habitat.
They also like warm
places,
because like most other reptiles,
they need warmth to keep their own
body temperature
up.
And in
Cape
York and northern
Australia,
there is plenty of heat and plenty of the outback - excellent lizard
habitat.
We don't have some of
the more famous
ones such as perenties or thorny devils, but we have other beauties
like frilled lizards, lace monitors, blue tongue skinks and many others.
Skinks
The ones you see lots of,
the small ones that run around in the leaf litter on the ground, are
skinks
- the largest group of Australian lizards with 370
species.
A small skink on the ground in
Cooktown.
Some are legless,
most have legs, and many are only known by Latin names. Some of the
most famous ones are the larger ones, such as Blue Tongue
Skinks.
One species
of them - Tlilqua
scincoides
- is found in Cape York.
Others that we have include Garden Skink Lampropholis delicata,
Prickly
Forest Skink Gnypetoscincus
queenslandiae, Major Skink Egernia
frerei, Eastern Striped Skink Ctenotus
robustus, Eastern Water
Skink Eulamprus quoyii,
Lively Rainbow Skink Carlia
Vivax,
Black Mountain Skink Carlia
scirtetis,
and many other species that only have Latin names.
Gecko Lizards
Geckos belong to a fairly large group of small nocturnal
reptiles.
The
best known ones to us locals are house
geckos that live in our homes.
Unfortunately nowadays the introduced Asian
House Gecko has overtaken
the niche and forced the original native
house geckos (Eastern
Dtella Gehyra dubia)
back to
the bush.
A
small gecko in Cape Tribulation.
But there are heaps more species that live in the bush, and the ones we
have in Cape York include Ring-tailed Gecko
Cyrtodactylus
louisiadensis,
Black
Mountain Gecko Nactus
galgajuga,
Pelagic Gecko Nactus
pelagicus,
Mourning Gecko Lepidodactylus
lugubris,
Box Patterned Gecko Diplodactylus
steindachneri, Bynoe's Gecko Heteronotia
binoei,
Giant Tree Gecko Pseudothecadactylus
australis,
Northern Velvet Gecko Oedura
castelnaui, Zigzag Velvet Gecko Oedura rhombifer,
McIllwraith Leaf
Tailed Gecko Orraya
occultus
and Pickly Knob Tailed Gecko Nephrurus
asper.
Dragon Lizards
Dragons
are larger
than
skinks and geckos, and although not quite as large as monitors and
goannas, they are quite impressive animals, and some of them are quite
easy to come across.
A
water dragon.
The most famous ones are the Frilled
LizardsChlamydosaurus
kingii.
In
moister
areas such as the coast and rainforests, there are Water
Dragon Physignathus
lesueurii
and Boyd's
Forest Dragon Hypsilurus
boydii.
Others we have in Cape York include Nobbi Dragons Amphibolurus nobbi,
Two Lined
Dragons Diporiphora
bilineata,
Ta-Ta
Lizard Amphibolurus
gilberti
and Tommy
Roundhead Diporiphora
australia.
Monitors
and Goannas
The largest and most
impressive of our lizards are monitors
and goannas.
We
don't
have
perentie - Australia's largest one, but we have the second largest -
Lace MonitorVaranus
varius.
A
goanna lizard.
Others that we have include Yellow-spotted Monitor Varanus panoptes,
Sand Goanna Varanus
gouldii, Mangrove Monitor Varanus indicus,
Canopy Goanna
Varanus keithhornei,
Black Headed Monitor Varanus
tristis,
Rusty Monitor Varanus
semiremex
and Spotted Tree
Monitor Varanus scalaris.
Legless Lizards
And finally there is the group of legless lizards - the
strangest ones
as they really look like snakes. At a closer look though, they have a
head of a lizard and not a snake. Also unlike snakes, they have ear
openings, unforked tongues and they can make a (gecko-like) noise. They
are all harmless.
A
legless lizard by
eyeweed via
Flickr.com
The ones we have in Cape York include the Common Scaly Foot Lizard Pygopus lepidopodus, Northern Hooded Scaly Foot
Lizard Pygopus
steelescotti
and Burton's Snake-lizard
Lialis burtonis.
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This complete 300 pages
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background chapters on the peninsula's history and wildlife; and the comprehensive detail about all
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detail), it has invaluable information on at least 10 four wheel drive tracks,
at least 30 guaranteed FREE
camping spots on the Cape (and at least 150 on your way to
the Cape), at least 40 best
swimming holes, all mapped; as well as practical things -
from fuel, roads, wireless internet and mobile phone reception,
how to deal with the national
parks booking rules; and Aboriginal land entrance and camping permits
and alcohol restrictions - to vehicle preparation and accessories and necessary recovery
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This site uses British
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Australia.
Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that all the information on this
website is correct, this site is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.