Australian Lizards: A Natural History

AUSTRALIAN

LIZARDS

AUSTRALIAN

LIZARDS

A NATURAL HISTORY

STEVE K WILSON

© Steve Wilson 2012

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO PUBLISHING for all permission requests.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Wilson, Steve, 1954–

Australian lizards : a natural history / Steve Wilson.

9780643106406 (pbk.)

9780643106413 (epdf)

9780643106420 (epub)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Lizards – Australia.

Lizards – Behavior – Australia.

597.950994

Published by

CSIRO PUBLISHING

150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)

Collingwood VIC 3066

Australia

Telephone: +61 3 9662 7666

Local call:  1300 788 000 (Australia only)

Fax:           +61 3 9662 7555

Email:        publishing.sales@csiro.au

Web site:    www.publish.csiro.au

Front cover: Black-palmed Monitor (Varanus glebopalma)

Back cover (clockwise from left): Western Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus spinigerus), Central Netted Dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis), Merten’s Water Monitor (Varanus mertensi), Frilled Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii)

Set in Minion Pro 10.5/14.6

Edited by Joy Window

Cover design by James Kelly

Typeset by Oryx Publishing Pty Ltd

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd

CSIRO PUBLISHING publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO. The copyright owner shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

Original print edition:

The paper this book is printed on is in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council®. The FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

1    Meet the lizards

2    Where lizards live

3    Form and function

4    Senses: sight, scent and sound

5    How lizards manage their temperatures

6    How lizards protect themselves

7    What lizards eat

8    How lizards manage their water

9    How lizards are made

10  The fate of Australian lizards

Glossary

References

Index

Frilled Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii)

PREFACE

There is something magical about lizards. When I was a toddler a blue-tongue turned up in a neighbour’s garden. It left me spellbound, permanently triggering some spark in the wiring of my brain. Since that formative moment I have been driven to delve into wood heaps, probe burrows, plunge my hands into spiny spinifex hummocks and rummage under rubbish piles. A fanatical quest for lizards has even caused me to question my own sanity as, soaking with sweat, I rake the litter under some shrub in search of an elusive burrowing skink. It must have just two toes on its foot. Any more, and it is the wrong species!

Lizard watching is a richly satisfying experience. There can be few pastimes as rewarding as observing the posturing antics of a dragon on a hot rock as it eyeballs a rival on another rock. Or following the dull orange glow in a head-torch beam to reveal a spectacularly flanged and mottled leaf-tailed gecko artfully blending with the backdrop. Or beholding the swaggering gait of a large monitor, with flaking hide of beaded scales, as it forages confident of its place high on the food chain, evoking images of worlds past when giant reptiles ruled the roost. In my Brisbane garden, the skinks are always up to something worth noting. And at night the geckos take over, with familiar individuals staking out their regular spots under the lights and on window sills where the insect pickings are richest. They offer gripping viewing as they stalk their prey.

A lifetime of lizards has led me back and forth across Australia, for mine is an interest that demands travel. In the alps, hardy skinks soak up the sun on the lee side of rocks away from the chilly wind, while in the desert the lizards shuttle in and out of the shade to avoid roasting. Dumpy little red dragons mimic the stones on arid plains, and rainforest dragons, long-limbed and angular, cling motionless to slender shaded saplings, ready to slide quietly from view if approached. The variety of lizards and the opportunities to discover what they are up to seems endless in Australia.

In the quest for a ‘bigger picture’ I embarked on journeys beyond our shores, into the rainforests of South-East Asia, Central America and Madagascar. I explored the mossy cloud forests of Sri Lanka and hunted lizards in Arizona’s Sonora Desert. And I mused over the persistence of lizards within the human realm, as they sunned themselves among the Greek and Roman ruins, using the fractured marble testaments to early civilizations as convenient basking sites.

Throughout these travels, I have been constantly struck by the ability of lizards to thrive in harsh regimes, exploit the challenges and diversify. There have also been constant reminders of home. Those lizards on the ancient ruins look and behave like skinks but they are not, and there are pebble-like lizards in the American deserts that closely resemble the Australian varieties. The angular lizards clinging to saplings in Costa Rican forests, and the short-limbed, wedge-snouted skinks swimming through dry Malagasy sands, are analogues to some lizards I know and love in Australia. It has become starkly obvious that if survival strategies and physical adaptations are effective, unrelated lizards in different places will often evolve convergently.

But back to those first experiences with lizards. They posed a peculiar dilemma when I was a small child, and it leaves me a little perplexed even today. For me, it was a self-evident truth that lizards are extraordinary, with limitless capacity to amaze and inspire. Absolute, unquestionable fact. So why wasn’t everyone talking about them? Shopkeepers, teachers, other kids at school and even my own family seemed oblivious to these creatures. There was no lengthy coverage about them on TV, no mention of lizards was made during class and bus drivers never brought up the subject. True, I managed to involve some of my friends in lizarding exploits, but they seemed to be in it more for fun and diversion than from any innate driving force.

Was I alone in being able to see the blindingly obvious, like the tale of emperor with no clothes? I have learned over decades to accept that not everybody sees lizards in the same radiant light as I do. Very few people are completely enraptured by the charm of lizards. Reluctantly, I now realise that it takes a wide range of people to make this world, even if most of them are wrong!

I hope, however, that this book helps to ignite a spark of interest. It offers a glimpse into the remarkable lives of lizards, laced (I hope) with enough current information to satisfy both novice and specialist. It is intended to appeal to a diverse readership, from those with a general interest in the life unfolding about them to the seasoned herpetologist and dedicated saurophile.

When discussing lizards, it is normal to use scientific names, but when common names are available I have used them as well. However, unlike the situation with Australian birds, there is no standardised, widely accepted employment of common names. The names of several species vary geographically and many simply do not have a popular label. Fortunately there has been a welcome trend over recent years for taxonomists to include proposed common names with the scientific descriptions of new species.

While the chapters deal with broad aspects of lizards’ lives such as feeding, reproduction and temperature management, there are a series of 14 ‘fact boxes’ covering other interesting snippets. They include lizard longevity, invasive geckos, the rediscovery of ‘lost’ species and examples where some unrelated lizards in Australia and overseas have evolved uncanny likenesses in appearance and behaviour.

Where possible, I have tried to avoid technical language, and words or terms that may be unfamiliar appear in the glossary.

The images are mine unless otherwise indicated. The credited photographer retains copyright.

Steve K Wilson

May 2012

Golden-tailed Gecko (Strophurus taenicauda)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank my wife Marilyn for stoically enduring my compulsive reptile passion, and for cheerfully sharing our home with various scaly photographic subjects. Tactfully, I have contrived that she remain ignorant of some. My parents, Joy and Ken Wilson, always encouraged me to follow my interests, though my father, blinded by paternal pride, misidentified an early dysfunctional obsession as genius.

Photographing animals behaving naturally is a challenge and I am grateful to those photographers who allowed access to their hard-won efforts. I thank the following for the images they have provided: Kieran Aland, Bob Ashdown, Ian and Jill Brown, Gareth Catt, Chris Crafter, Ian Dudgeon, Alex Dudley, Ashley Edwards, Adam Elliott, Ryan Ellis, Melanie Elphick, Stewart Ford, Michelle Franklin, Glen Gaikhorst, Damian Goodall, Mike Griffiths, Greg Harold, Sam Hartgrove, Katie Hiller, Dave Knowles, Jeff Lemm, Ray Lloyd, Brad Maryan, Geoff Monteith, Marilyn Parker, Dave Pemberton, Lachlan Ryan, David Shaw, Ian Smales, Devi Stuart-Fox, Gerry Swan, Mike Swan and Peter Tremul.

Merrick Ekins of the Queensland Museum assisted in producing images with a scanning electron microscope. Museum Librarian Meg Lloyd sourced some obscure references. Rod Hobson reviewed the manuscript, picked out the glitches and made helpful suggestions. Dave Knowles helped with some image editing.

The time I have spent in the company of enthusiastic naturalists is priceless. Some have accompanied me in the field and others have shared their knowledge in stimulating discussions. For helping nurture my own interest, I thank Kieran Aland, Bob Ashdown, Greg Harold, Tim Helder, Tony and Katie Hiller, Rod Hobson, Dave Knowles, Brad Maryan, Mike Powell, Gerry Swan, Mike Swan and Eric Vanderduys.

Central Netted Dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis)

For access to specimens in their care, I thank Kieran Aland, Rob Porter, Martin Fingland, Maria Barnes and the Melbourne Zoo. I am grateful to NACAP Australia for fostering scientific research, including the documentation and photography of reptiles during pipeline construction. The Australian Geographic Society sponsored my participation in their 2011 Kimberley Expedition to El Questro.

Golden-tailed Gecko (Strophurus taenicauda)

1

MEET THE LIZARDS

The lives of lizards unfold largely hidden from human eyes. Lizards carefully manage their temperatures; they feed, mate, lay eggs or give birth; and they struggle to survive in a complex world of predators and competitors. Using the vast array of artful strategies at their disposal, including a suite of physical and behavioural modifications, lizards flourish in virtually all Australian terrestrial habitats. Lizards are extraordinarily successful at what they do best – being lizards.

The more than 690 named Australian species are divided into seven families: the dragons, monitors, skinks, flap-footed lizards and three families of geckos. While individual species may be extremely challenging to identify, most family members share enough overall similarities in appearance and behaviour to be easily recognised at a glance.

The impressive list of Australian species grows longer each year as more species are discovered and existing species are appraised with new diagnostic tools including genetics. But while we continue the taxonomic stocktake, a vast amount remains to be learned about what all those lizards are actually doing.

SKINKS (family Scincidae) qualify as an outstanding success story. If diversity is a measure of evolutionary achievement, and if abundance and broad distributions reflect high ecological performance, skinks win on all counts. With more than 420 described species, they are by far the most numerous and diverse lizards in Australia.

The diverse skink family, with more than 420 Australian species, includes the slow-moving omnivorous Shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa). [Cockleshell Gully, WA]

Eastern Water Skins (Eulamprus quoyii) are semi-aquatic, favouring riverside habitats and regularly entering the water to hunt. [Girraween Natonal Park, Qld]

The diminutive, insectivorous Sadlier’ Dwarf Skink (Menetia sadlieri) is one of the smallest Australian lizards. [Magnetic Island, Qld]

Black Rock Skinks (Egernia saxatilis) are robust, dorsally flattened lizards that squeeze into narrow rock and wood crevices. [Cann River, Vic]

Rainbow skinks (Carlia spp.) are swift, alert, sun-loving lizards. Carlia sexdentata occurs in woodlands and forest edges in Cape York and north-eastern Northern Territory. [Iron Range, Qld]

The Black-soil Striped Skink (Ctenotus joanae) prefers the open terrain of cracking clay and stony plains in the arid eastern interior. [Nappa Merrie Station, Qld]

Skinks occur virtually worldwide, but nowhere are they as numerous and varied as they are in Australia. They occupy all Australian habitats where lizards can exist, which essentially means just about anywhere there is land underfoot. They normally outnumber other lizards in any given habitat. In the most extreme situations, such as the highest mountains, most southerly islands and the splash zone on the tropical coastline, skinks may be the only resident lizards.

Such is their variety in appearance and behaviour that there are few easy means, applicable to the whole family, to effectively define skinks. They usually have symmetrical plate-like shields on the tops of their heads, smooth overlapping scales, long cylindrical bodies, four limbs each with five digits, moveable eyelids, visible ear openings and short peg-like pleurodont teeth. Typical skinks are small, swift, insectivorous lizards that bask in the sun and easily discard their tails if grasped.

Yet there are many exceptions to all of these. There has been a progressive loss of limbs and digits to facilitate a burrowing lifestyle, modifications to the dentition on those with specialised diets, the evolution of a fixed clear window (or brille) over the eye to guard against moisture loss in dry climates, and a sculpting of those smooth scales into spines to wedge them into cracks. Most species are egg layers, but giving birth to live young (viviparity) has evolved multiple times among different lineages, usually in response to cold climates. Most species catch insects, but some prefer worms or molluscs while a few are virtually vegetarians.

Skinks range from flat, long-limbed lizards that shin over vertical surfaces to worm-like burrowers. The smallest skinks, the menetias, are among the world’s tiniest reptiles. Some have a head and body length of just 2.5 centimetres. In contrast, blue-tongues (Tiliqua spp.) and the Land Mullet (Bellatorias major), exceeding 30 centimetres, are about a thousand times larger in mass.

Many burrowing skinks have reduced or lost their limbs. The Yolk-bellied Snake Skink (Ophioscincus ophioscincus) has lost all external trace of limbs. [Mt Glorious, Qld]

Skinks have acute chemosensory mechanisms. All species protrude their broad, flattened tongues as they forage. This is easily observed on large skinks like blue-tongues. They collect chemical particles and deliver them to the Jacobson’s organ, a chemosensory chamber in the roof of the mouth that conducts sensory data to the brain for analysis. Skinks can also determine scent via the nose. Perhaps they employ Jacobson’s organ to discriminate at close range while the nasal apparatus picks up distant, more volatile stimuli. Most skinks also have large, well-developed eyes. Many are obviously well tuned to noise, responding readily to rustling leaf litter or a cracking twig.

Skinks normally combine the use of their senses, exploring their surroundings with an alert eye, a flickering tongue and a sharp ear for danger. Burrowing species rely more on the chemosensory stimuli. It is hard to imagine the small, deeply sunken eyes of snake skinks (Ophioscincus spp.) being effective in navigation or prey detection as they push through compost, though they may be very light sensitive. Larger-eyed diurnal skinks are strongly visually cued, with some using colour as a communication tool. The bold hues of breeding male rainbow skinks (Carlia spp.) are certainly designed to be seen, along with stylised movements such as tail waving.

The burrowing Myall Slider Skink (Lerista edwardsae) has retained a minute stump for a forelimb, and hindlimbs with two toes. [Port Germein, SA]

Box 1 Skink look-alikes

Skinks constitute more than two-thirds of all Australian lizard species. They are often the most common lizards in a given habitat, and in extreme cases they may be the only lizards. Skinks flourish in many other parts of the world too, but nowhere outside Australia do they achieve the same extraordinary diversity.

This may, in part, be due to competition from some other lizard families. There are several that are extremely successful on other continents and broadly similar to skinks in their ecology but not present in Australia. These significant players and likely rivals include the families Teiidae in the Americas; Lacertidae across Europe, Africa and Asia; Gerrhosauridae in Africa and Madagascar; and Anguidae spread patchily across most continents. These groups include a suite of small, long-bodied, diurnal lizards that forage in and over ground debris, dart between low vegetation, bask on rock walls, burrow in compost and hunt arthropods by using sight to detect movement and scent to investigate likely retreats. They occupy niches that are parallel to many Australian skinks.

The whiptails belong to the family Teiidae, widespread through the Americas. Cnemidophorus deppii is common on open sandy areas from Mexico to Central America. [Tivives, Costa Rica]

Many of the skink-like lizards in Africa and Madagascar are plated lizards of the family Gerrhosauridae. Zonosaurus madagascariensis lives on Madagascar. [Analamazaotra, Madagascar]

In dry, open habitats across north and central America, the lizards that dart between low shrubs and vanish into thickets look and act just like Australian striped skinks (Ctenotus spp.). They share similar body forms and many even sport boldly striped patterns on their backs, but they are whiptails in the family Teiidae. The genera Cnemidophorus and Aspidoscelis contain many species that could easily be confused at a glance, with skinks from Australia. The United States, with a landmass roughly comparable in size to Australia, has only about 15 species of skinks.

A keen-eyed visitor to Europe will spy the small lizards basking among the broken marble columns of the ancient ruins. The lizards, superficially resembling skinks, belong to the family Lacertidae. They are very common but wary, quickly retreating into gaps between the stones in ancient walled cities. Lacertids are the most abundant and diverse lizards across Europe, and they are very significant elements in the lizard fauna in many parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Where the various skink-like families occur, many of the sympatric skinks tend to be long-bodied burrowers or discreet species that remain close to cover. Australia is one of the places where skinks have truly radiated with spectacular success.

The sun-loving Milos Wall Lizard (Podarcis milensis) is in the family Lacertidae. It occupies shrublands and dry stone walls on the Mediterranean island of Milos. [Milos, Greece]

It takes a keen eye to distinguish this galliwasp (Diploglossus bilobatus), family Anguidae, from a skink. It burrows into rotting logs like many Australian skinks. [Santa Elena, Costa Rica]

Some skinks have narrow, isolated distributions in specialised habitats, but as a group they are the most familiar Australian lizards. They are abundant, and several species can persist in the face of the radical changes to the environment brought about by urbanisation. They are common and obvious in the hearts of most cities. The average householder may not know what they are, but the small brown lizards sunning on the edge of their inner suburban garden paths are almost certainly skinks.

DRAGONS (family Agamidae) live mainly in dry, open habitats, though some are adapted to closed forests and water courses. There are more than 70 described Australian species, with diversity highest in the deserts and across the tropical north. There is just one species in Tasmania – the only non-skink lizard on the island.

Dragons belong to a clade of lizards called Iguania, which includes chameleons, anoles and iguanas. They extend from Australia, through Asia to Africa and southern Europe. Their distribution is mutually exclusive with that of the iguanas. These occur throughout the Americas, with isolated outliers in the Pacific and Madagascar. The two groups include a large number of ecological analogues, with some striking examples of convergent evolution (see Box 8, ‘An artful ploy – pebble mimics’, page 96).

Dragons often choose