Today's rescue

[den]

(click for a larger photo) Adult blue tongue lizard, showing hos he got his name. He was bailed up by dogs that would have killed him if he'd been left. I relocated him to the edge of town and let him go.

Comments

[talvinamarich.livejournal.com]

I assume they are otherwise relatively harmless?

Even so, an imagined conversation came to mind:

"Australia has more poisonous reptiles than anywhere else on Earth!"

(sage nod) "Yeah, a parliamentary form of government can do that to ya...."

;)

The tongue, I gather, is used to warn off enemies. Does the coloration have any other out-of-the-ordinary uses? (Honestly, not sure why a blue tongue would scare off anything--but obviously, that only means I am not what is supposed to be scared off!)

--T

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Immensely strong jaws but no teeth to speak of. When startled they open their moth and poke the tongue right out, and they leap at you. It's all bluff, of course, but to have one do it at you unexpectedly can lead to brown-trousers time.