Lizards 5: Solomon Islands Skink

Adult Corucia with juvenile

One of the more unusual, as well as larger, lizards on show at Bristol is a family group of the Solomon Islands Skink Corucia zebrata. Unfortunately, members of the public all too often walk by their enclosure as they tend to be secretive and immobile during visiting hours, often inside hollow cork tubes or resting on an overhead beam in their enclosure. This is a loss for the visitors, as they have one of the more complicated social structures and lifestyles of all lizards.

Lizards 4: Green Tree Monitor

Juvenile V.prasinus

Turning from desert living vegetarians, the subject of this post is an insectivorous species from the rain forests of New Guinea. The Green Tree Monitor Varanus prasinus is widely distributed in rain forests across the island, but as it spends all its time in the canopy it is not seen frequently unless a tree is cut down.

Lizards 3: Chuckwalla

Common Chuckwalla

Sharing the enclosure with the spiny lizards is a breeding group of Common Chuckwalla, Sauromalus ater. This is the most widespread species, ranging over rocky desert areas of much of the south western USA and Mexico. There are four other species, three on islands off the coast of Baja California and Mexico, which are classed as either Near Threatened or Endangered, mostly as a result of their limited range rather than any specific new threats. The remaining species, the Penisular Chuckwalla S.australis, is classed as Least Concern , as is the Common Chuckwalla.