Tiliqua rugosa

Pinecone lizard ( Tiliqua rugosa )

The pinecone lizard ( Tiliqua rugosa, former Misc Trachydosaurus rugosus ) is in the south and west of Australia quite frequently occurring reptile of the family of skinks. Other names are Tannenzapfenskink or Stutz lizard. English names are shingle back, bobtail lizard or, because of their appearance and the low inclination of the flight animals, sleepy lizard.

Appearance

The scales can brown to black or reddish, with some subspecies with light transverse bands. The lizards are up 35 to 40 cm long. With its stocky shape and short legs with a short tail, but especially through the rough, greatly enlarged and keeled scales, the animal resembles a pine cone. The thick tail is used as fat storage.

Way of life

Pine cones lizards feed on snails, insects and worms - but mostly from plants and fruits. In winter and spring, the food supply is large, in the dry summer, the animals live off some of its fat reserves.

The skinks are quite slow and usually not flee first before approaching people. Instead, they threaten with open mouth and protruding tongue, which is wide and strikingly blue. This gives the genus Tiliqua the name " Blauzungenskinke ". The lizards live in dry bushland and enjoy sunbathing on the streets, where they slow the escape behavior easily becomes a quagmire.

The mating season is in October and November, in the spring of Australia. The skinks are viviparous and get their, often only one or two young after a gestation period of about four months. The young are about half as long as the mother at birth.