You might be surprised to learn that even in built up environments you can find animals like blue- tongue lizards living happily in suburban backyards.
The suburban blue-tongue lizard |
In our garden, over the space of a year, I have encountered as many as seven individual blue-tongue lizards and photographed them. Some of these animals have been residents of the backyard (I've either photographed them numerous times, or discovered them using the same refuge for weeks or months at a time). Others may use the yard as a natural corridor; passing through whilst they search for food or mates.
Being ectothermic (cold-blooded) you are unlikely to see them during the colder months. But in the Spring, I see more individuals and generally encounter them frequently with the most active months being August and September. This also coincides with the breeding season. Most years we are lucky enough to see baby lizards in January.
It's a terribly rewarding experience to discover wildlife such as lizards living in your backyard. And so, here are my 5 tips on how to create a backyard habitat suitable for the blue-tongue lizard.
These lizards have long heavy bodies with short stumpy legs, and so they simply cannot move with great agility or speed. Give them a fighting chance against a quicker more agile predator by providing them with plenty of cover.
Blue-tongue hiding in hollow log |
Shelter them with dense planting your garden beds. Mulch and deep leaf litter is not only good for the garden, but also great for secretive blueys. Provide hides with hollow logs, but please don't collect these from natural areas. Keep in mind too, that a great refuge doesn't always have to be natural, half overturned terracotta pots or a bit of plumbers pipe buried with the ends exposed work very well as hidey holes and tunnels for lizards in your garden.
2. Feed them
Looking to pinch my tomatoes |
I'm not suggesting you leave food out for lizards, but if your garden has plenty of plants and good soil, you almost certainly have insects, worms and snails, yum! Fruit bearing trees will also encourage lizards and other wildlife. A word of advise, if you don't want the lizards getting all the good strawberries, grow them in a tall pot.
I am a firm advocate for organically grown, and would encourage everyone to garden without chemicals. Fertilisers, poisons and baits are destructive elements to use in the garden, and can harm and kill insects and the animals that eat them, including blue-tongue lizards.
3. Warm them up
Baby who was poking around the compost heap |
Lizards are ectothermic and will habitually seek out heat sources. Have you ever seen a turtle basking on a rock? It's not trying to improve it's tan, but rather using the sun's energy to warm its body. Lizards often do the same thing. Put a nice flat rock in a part of the garden that gets some morning light and you might be rewarded with basking lizards that are a joy to behold.
Other sources of heat may come from decaying matter such as deep litter or a rotting compost heap. Their thermal requirements, will lead blueys to various parts of the garden. We once had a small blue tongue lizard domiciled between the house and the hot water system. It lived there for almost a year, before eventually outgrowing the space.
4. Offer a drink
5. Watch out for them
Blue-tongue warming up on tiled driveway |
A garden is a much more interesting place when you know you might spy a blue-tongue lizard shuffling, nose down through the leaf litter. And so, with these 5 easy tips we're confident you'll
encourage a true blue little aussie; the blue-tongue lizard into your very own backyard.
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