Tiliqua – Blue-tongue Lizard or Skink

Advice about the management and care of Blue–tongue lizards for NSW schools.

Introduction

Tiliqua – Blue-tongue Lizard or Skink

The Blue-tongue lizard is one of the most commonly seen and known reptiles in Australia, found in eastern and northern Australia in woodlands, grasslands and heath country. The Blue- tongue lizard readily adapts to urban and suburban gardens and parks, feeding on a variety of invertebrates and plant material with their favourites being slugs and snails.

Blue-tongue lizards can reach sizes of up to 60cms in length and are typically grey or pale brown with darker banding on the body and tail. The belly is cream or yellowish white and the lizard is characterised by its vivid blue tongue. The Blue-tongue lizard is harmless however it can bite if harassed but usually prefers to carry out a bluff performance that can involve opening its mouth to display its blue tongue and producing a hiss by forcing air from its lungs.

The Blue-tongue lizard gives birth to live young and is capable of producing litters of up to 30 lizards in late summer after mating in spring and early summer.

Multiple Blue-tongue lizards can be kept together however fighting can occur and Blue-tongue lizards can readily reproduce. For this reason, it is recommended that Blue-tongue lizards are not kept together in a school situation so that aggressive behaviour which can lead to injuries requiring veterinary treatment and unwanted breeding that produces an excess of unwanted offspring is avoided.

Introduction to the blue-tongue lizard

Watch introduction to the blue-tongue lizard. (2:32)

A Taronga Zoo keeper explains the characteristics of the blue-tongue lizard.

Narrator: Toronga Zoo keeper

So, this is a blue-tongue lizard. He’s found along the east coast of Australia, so you’ll find him from Western Australia, way down to Victoria. You don’t find him in Tasmania at all.

He’s named blue-tongue lizard for obvious reasons and there we go, for his blue tongue. The reason he’s a lizard and maybe not a snake some differences to point out, a lizard is that this little guy has legs which isn’t always the case because there are some legless lizards in the World. He has eyelids, a snake doesn’t have eyelids.

And when he pokes out his tongue it’s quite broad and fleshy and not forked, so he’s a lizard. The most important part of this guy to make him a lizard is the fact that he has ears. So, you can see the two little holes on the side of his head, that would indicate that this guy’s a lizard. All lizards have ears and there’s no exceptions to the rules there.

So, you’ll find this guy in a variety of environments around Australia. So, from dry to forests to wet.

But a lot of the time a lot of people find these guys in their backyard. They’re enticed into backyards for a lot of reasons. One reason and the main reason that most reptiles are enticed into backyards is water. We all need water and a lot of backyards have a dog bowl or a cat bowl of water, a bird bath, a pool, all sorts of water sources to entice it in.

So, if you’ve got water and then the other thing is food. So, a lot of people are keen gardeners, not only do they come in for maybe the fruit and vegetables but they love snails and slugs. So, if you don’t use pesticides and you have a lot of snails and slugs around they’re coming into eat all your goodies.

They also like to eat funnel webs in some cases or spiders. So, they’re quite handy to have around in the backyard. A lot of the time people just have a lot of shelter and it’s something to keep them safe in backyards.

One thing that they don’t really like about backyards unfortunately especially when it does come to them in coming in for water from dog bowls. And they also love eating dog and cat food is that the dogs and cats unfortunately they do get attacked quite often by dogs and cats which obviously isn’t good for these guys.

The other thing in backyards that’s quite a danger for them is when people are lawn mowing. So, they do get injured quite often in backyards but most of the time backyards are quite a safe haven for a blue tongue lizard.

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Selecting a suitable blue-tongue lizard

Watch selecting a suitable blue-tongue lizard. (1:12)

A Taronga Zoo keeper explains what to look for when acquiring a healthy blue-tongue lizard.

Narrator: Taronga Zoo keeper

So, when buying your Blue Tongue Lizard, you always want to make sure that he’s quite healthy, you want to see him first.

If he’s a juvenile well you might not be able to pick up on too many issues because it is young and quite healthy already.

If it’s an adult you just want to check that he’s quite alert for his surroundings, that his eyes aren’t watery or his mouth isn’t watery or have any mucus. You want to make sure that he does have all his feet and toes.

They do have problems with shedding or sloughing the skin which unfortunately can lead to losing the limbs or the toes. You just want to make sure that his tail isn’t too fat, but he needs to have a little bit of a fat stored there or he might be too skinny.

You don’t want to be seeing the bones running down the back of his tail. That indicates a healthy animal. If there is too many bones showing he might be underfed and under nourished.

Just those small tips and also buying from a reputable buyer indicates that you’re going to buy a healthy animal.

[End of transcript]

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