Boring story about catching a Bearded Dragon

[Flboy]

Old thread, but oh so funny! Your writing skills are fantastic! The bump will give the newer folks something to wet themselves over!
Over the years, we raised and sold over three hundred breardies, we now have only 3.
David

 

[Betrisher]

Thanks, David.

Did you know there's a smaller version of the BD called a 'Jacky Lizard'? They're only about six inches long, but look like a perfect miniature replica of their larger cousin. I found out just the other day that the genus has been renamed from Amphibolurus to Pogona. I hate when they do that! Amphibolurus had such a nice ring to it.

Looking through some old photos the other day, I found a pic of yet another family incident involving a lizard. It was about twelve years ago: my daughter was eight and we had enjoyed a barbecue at the local Scouts installation at a place called Glenrock Lagoon. Having finished our sausages-on-a-bun, we were sitting back and relaxing, enjoying the ambience of the rather special place. As always, I had my eyes peeled for anything interesting in the way of wildlife. It's a nasty habit I have: I simply cannot hold a conversation in the outdoors without flicking my eyes about looking for birds and animals that might be in my vicinity. It puts some people off, but anyone who knows me understands my need to find and identify animals and plants.

So as I sat there, idly chatting with the family and scanning the horizon, I became aware of a large, dark 'thing' oozing along in the long grass at the top of the hill. At first, I thought it might have been a black snake, but it was too big and not at all long enough. I remarked on it to everyone else and so we all sat and observed as a middle-sized Lace Monitor (Varanus varius) approached our barbecue site.

He was not the slightest bit concerned about our human presence! Every few feet, he would pause and raise his head up to sniff the air with his long, bifurcated tongue. He looked like nothing more than a primitive dinosaur stalking the primaeval grassland. He was a beautiful specimen of Lace Monitor too, except for a bend near the end of his tail. He'd probably been attacked by some large bird or even a human at some stage. He was a matte black all over with a lovely lacy pattern of pale yellow traced over his entire body. Unlike other lizards, the scales of the LM don't overlap, so they look kind of like tiny seed beads: very attractive. The thing about LMs, though, is that they almost exclusively live on carrion and they will bite you if you make them mad. I was a bit nervous, on account of my daughter had only just turned eight and would be no match for the LM if he decided to go for her.

I needn't have worried. The great lizard had been attracted by the smell of our barbecue and had come to investigate the chance of some arvo tea. My husband had set the barbecue hotplate to cool by leaning it against the shelter we were sitting in. Mr Lizard simply waltzed up to it and began to lick it clean of all vestiges of sausage and fat! He was very thorough too! As luck would have it, there were a few sausages left over that we'd intended to take home for our dog's dinner. Ellie (my daughter) broke them into pieces and fed them to Mr Lizard, who gratefully gobbled them up. When they were all gone, he simply turned and oozed his way back through the grass the way he had come.

A couple of years later, Ellie was at a Scout camp at the same site. Late one afternoon, the same lizard came to visit the camp, looking for scraps as was obviously his wont. Ellie took great pleasure in describing how the big boys all recoiled with fear from the lizard but she went up to him and fed him some sausage. She knew it was our Mr Lizard by the bend about four inches from the end of his tail.

Now that I've remembered this story, I must suggest that we go for another barbecue at Glenrock to see if Mr LM is still there!

PS. I was very proud of my daughter that day. She had no thought to flee the large lizard but rather was fascinated that a wild creature came to her with no fear. He actually went right up to her and put one claw on her foot while he checked out her bare leg with his tongue! Here's a pic taken just after he did that and a closeup of the gorgeous creature.

 

[thekarens]

He's gorgeous! And he looks like he could carry you off

 

[Betrisher]

LOL! I was seriously worried that he might attempt to carry my daughter off, but luckily he was happy enough to gobble our sausages.

 

[thekarens]

LOVED the story btw!

 

[Dinosrawr]

Oh my goodness, every story was phenomenal! Trish, you would tell the most amazing bed time stories. And your experiences would make an excellent book of entertaining stories