Depending how far beyond Zebra you go.”
- Dr. Seuss
I have a couple of Lizards living in my Bathroom court-yard garden and I often find them sunning themselves on the walls or the rocks and tree stumps. These cold-blooded reptiles eat insects such as ants, beetles, larvae and flies, so the ones we get around the house or game lodges are actually very welcome!
Being cold-blooded means that they don't have a control mechanism keeping their body temperature constant irrespective of their surroundings. They need the sun to warm their blood and provide them with energy to move and will remain mostly inactive on cold days and may hibernate in winter. There are no poisonous Lizards in southern Africa and South Africa is home to more than 200 lizard species, making it the richest country for lizard diversity in continental Africa.
The common lizard gives birth to live young, but other reptiles lay eggs. The lifespan of lizards is between 1 - 3 years.
I have tried to search the name of my lizards, but to no avail. There aren't even any pictures available on the internet. All I can find is that they are from the Suborder Lacertilia, but with no other information available. I'm going to call them my Common Lizards. Number one, I didn't know they would be so difficult to identify and, number two, so difficult to sketch! Never again will I say, "How difficult can this be?!" lol!
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Chordata
Class : Sauropsida
Order : Squamata
Sub-Order : Lacertilia
Oh my! I don't know which I'd like more ... a bathroom court yard, a resident lizard, or your lovely sketch. Well done.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Thank you Elva! I have huge wooden sliding-folding doors leading out into the court-yard, so I slide them fully open and watch the birds and lizards to heart's content while I'm bathing (I'm not a shower person!)! So choose the bathroom court-yard and you can have them all! (the sketch too, if you like!)
ReplyDeleteLove this Maree! How wonderful to have a courtyard so close to the bath. You must not get humid weather there. Our SC bugs would have a field day :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post, Maree, thank you for the information! I learned something today...I didn't realize lizards gave birth to live young!
ReplyDeleteWonderful sketch Maree! I agree that your bathroom setup sounds heavenly. Most of the lizards I find here in VA are the blue skink and half of them are missing their tails because of the neighborhood cats (mind included, I'm sorry to say).Fortunately, they regenerate fairly quickly.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of this--a great painting--and I liked the info too. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThank you PJ! Yea, humidity is very rare here on the Highveld of Gauteng, so exotic Coastal plants are a rarity! And it is one of the highlites of my day bathing in the mornings and watching all the birds and insects!
ReplyDeleteNews to me too Kate, but I had wondered when I saw many small lizards around.
ReplyDeleteThank you Paula! I think our skinks are found more in the coastal regions. One of my lizards also had a tail missing the other day, can't think what could have caused it, unless it was the Fiscal Shrike. Jacko (my Fox terrier) knows not to touch them.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Tom, glad you enjoyed the info too!
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