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Project Noah Nature School
Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii (formerly Physignathus lesueurii lesueurii)
It is always a joy to spot one of my favourite Australian lizards.... the "eastern water dragon", but it's only in the past few months that I have noticed the species at this wetland area. They were most likely here, but I've never seen any, and I have been coming to this location for many years. This young lizard was spotted beneath my car, and it allowed me to take a few photos before scampering off into the low foliage of some nearby garden shrubs. However, I was surprised to see it stop abruptly along the way to feed on some ants (last photo). I'm not as scary as I thought. Only a young juvenile, I estimate it's overall length to be 40-45 cms, but it has the potential to grow up to a metre should it be male. I've included another recent spotting I saw a few weeks back of a large adult male, and it was a very handsome animal... https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/48... There is also plenty of information about the species at the two references provided.
This spotting was in a car park area near the entrance to a service building, at the Metroplex on Gateway estate, Murarrie, Brisbane. The Metroplex wetlands are only a stone's throw from this location, and that is the area that this young lizard would most likely frequent for food and shelter. The riparian zones around creeks and ponds, etc., is usually a favourite habitat.
As he seems to be frequenting this area, this young fellow has been given a name. Meet "Horatio".
Spotted on Mar 5, 2020
Submitted on Mar 10, 2020
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