Bart Bear's Blog

Here's a lizard that looks like he has been put together using three pine cones. He is a shingleback lizard, also known as a stumpy or sleepy lizard. Shinglebacks are one of the biggest types of skinks and are found all over southern and western Australia, except for the really cold or wet parts. They eat flowers, berries, leaves, snails and insects and are really crazy about orange marmalade, except that they don't often find that by themselves. Shinglebacks don't move very fast, even when they are in a hurry. Their legs are even stumpier than mine. Their colour varies a lot, depending on how hot it is where they live. In the hot areas they are a dark yellow-orange and browny-black. In the cold areas they are almost completely black. I have seen these guys on lots of my trips, but this one lives at Sydney Wildlife World. He gets lots of hugs from visitors, except for the scaredy-cats that think lizards are yucky. I think all lizards are great.

Labels: animals, New South Wales, Sydney