Hi Judith,
Yakka Skink would be considerably unlikely at Mt Glorious. I'd say what
you saw was Major's Skink, Bellatorias frerei, a skink you would definitely
expect up there and much less patterned than a Blue-tongue.
http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Scincidae/Bellatorias/frerei
Regards,
Chris
On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 6:35 PM, Judith Hoyle <> wrote:
> This posting is for any of you who are also into herpetology. I was
> birding along Browns Road, Mt Glorious when I came across a very large
> lizard sunning itself in the middle of the road. Looking at it through the
> bins from a distance, I thought it was an aberrantly coloured Blue Tongue.
> I was able to get a few feet from it. It was big, huge in fact -
> certainly bigger than any of the Blue Tongues we get around here.
> Uniformly dark charcoal grey/ brown on the ventral surface and brown /
> dark cream below, with no banding noted. Body robust with a thick icecream
> cone-shaped tail - that's the best I can describe it. The thing that
> struck me the most though was the size of all 4 legs which were very large
> and muscular.
>
> As a) it was sitting in the middle of the road and b) because Gavin was
> about to come round the corner in the car and c) he had a camera, I decided
> to try and catch it. Almost caught it - got onto the tail, but it wiggled
> free and got under a large tree trunk.
>
> Habits are poorly known and although habitat does not add up "usually
> found in dry open schlerophyll forest" according to Cogger, I am as certain
> as I can be of the ID and would appreciate comments (or rebuttals with
> other alternative IDs).
>
> On the birding side of things, just before seeing the skink I was lucky
> enough to watch a Russet-tailed Thrush foraging and then take the results
> of said forage to a single young bird, which had been making a contact call
> throughout the time it was separated from the parent bird. Great to see!
>
> Kind regards
>
> Judith
>
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