Giant Girdled Lizard

Giant Girdled Lizard ( Smaug giganteus)

The Giant Girdled Lizard ( Smaug giganteus ( Syn: Cordylus giganteus) ) is the largest species of the family Girdle ( Cordylidae ). It comes in South Africa in the central and eastern Free State, Transvaal in South and Northeast KwaZulu -Natal. On the Red List of Threatened Species IUCN he is listed as threatened ( vulnerable ).

Features

Giant Girdle are powerfully built lizard with dorsoventrally flattened body and up to 40 cm total length. The scales are large, keeled and thorn -like, especially those seated in whorls on tail. The large head is triangular and has the rear edge of a wreath conspicuously large shed on. The back is medium to dark brown, the belly is yellow-brown. Throat and mouth are yellow. The males have enlarged glandular scales appearing above the Femoralporen and enlarged scales on the underside of the forelimbs on.

Way of life

Giant Girdle are from late spring to autumn, about eight months active and spend the winter hibernating in their burrows. These are rarely applied in colonies in grassland in rocky scrubland, with each animal created a separate unbranched gear that can extend several meters through the soil in about 30 cm depth. The diurnal and nocturnal animals often sunbathe on termite mounds. As a food serve various invertebrates, including mainly beetles. When threatened, the animals beat out with spiky tail and try to escape in their buildings. If this fails, they pretend to be dead, and they turn to the armored back to the attacker.

The females give birth every other year in late summer (January to February), one to three live young.

Swell

• Günther Nietzke: The terrarium animals 3 4 edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-7459-6, pp. 231-232.