Rare lizard found near Coober Pedy

Bronzeback legless lizards have a bronze strip down their back, grey sides, and a light grey underbelly, with a wedge shaped snout. Growing to about 25 centimetres in length, they are the width of a drinking straw. | Harald Ehmann, Arid Lands Natural Resource Mangement Board

 

  

The rare bronzeback legless lizard has been found near Coober Pedy during a recent survey by SA Arid Lands Natural Resource Management.

SA Arid Lands Natural Resource Management’s Fauna Recovery Officer Reece Pedler said the group was excited the lizards had been found in yet another location.

“It is a very hard to creature to find,” he said. “They are quite a secretive little creature and they are pretty inconspicuous.”

They were first spotted in 1890 but the next recording wasn’t made until 1977 when they were seen near Abminga in South Australia’s far north.

More recently they’ve been recorded living in the Lake Eyre Basin and Arckaringa Hills, with the Coober Pedy discovery the most recent.

They have a bronze strip down their back, grey sides, and a light grey underbelly, with a wedge shaped snout.

Growing to 27 centimetres in length, they are the width of a drinking straw.

“I guess they have a bit of a snake-like appearance, but they’re not a snake,” Mr Pedler said, adding they feed on insects in the leaf litter in which they live.

While insects are a major part of their diet, bronzebacks also feed on prey larger than themselves, where like crocodiles they grip their catch in their jaws and perform a death-roll to rip their prey apart.

Due to their inconspicuous lifestyle spent around watercourses around stony tablelands, under the leaf litter of Gidgee and Myall trees, bronzeback legless lizards are rarely encountered and little is known about their lives and exactly where they occur.

However, around the Coober Pedy area there is potential for them to fall into open mine shafts and even dugouts. If the lizard is found inside a dugout, it’s an opportunity for valuable information on this little-known species to be gained.

If animals are found alive, efforts should be made to get some close-up photos so that their identity can be confirmed, before releasing them, preferably into thick vegetation or debris where they can hide.

If you see a bronzeback legless lizard, record your location and take a photo of the lizard. Call Reece Pedler for his contact details on 8671 1083.

From ABC