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Project Noah Nature School
Tiliqua rugosa palarra
A short-tailed, slow moving species of blue-tongued skink found in Australia. Three of the four recognized subspecies are found only in Western Australia, where they are known collectively by the common name bobtail.
Western Australia rocky coastal slope.
Spotted on Apr 13, 2011
Submitted on Apr 13, 2011
4 Comments
Also bobtail, stump-tailed skink, bogeye, and pinecone lizard.
I like all of our skinks, and the big blue tongues in particular. And they make good house guests, as we've had a few that needed a bit of care live in our house until we could re-release them. I'll have to post photos of one sunning herself on the Tibetan rug.
Like most Australian flora and fauna, blue-tongues are adapted for really, really long term survival. No flash-in-the-pan species here.
I love the common and colloquial names that we give animals. Shingleback and Sleepy Lizard are both good ones.
I cited a paper about these guys in my Master's thesis. Pretty intriguing critters.