Tiliqua rugosa

Shingleback Lizard at Majura, ACT

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Identification history

	Tiliqua rugosa	24 Aug 2017	wombey
	Tiliqua rugosa	24 Aug 2017	AaronClausen

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User's notes

One poor dead small shingle back. Insides were completely gone, I.e eaten out I assume.

5 comments

waltraud wrote:

25 Aug 2017

I'm really puzzled!!! I have not heard from any other CNP site about dead shinglebacks and wonder why they are so common on Mt Majura.
I don't want to look at shingleback records anymore. Most distressing.
Waltraud

AaronClausen wrote:

25 Aug 2017

I know sorry Waltraud, I didn't enjoy finding this guy like this either. But at the same time, really important that we map them I reckon, over time we'll get an idea of their distribution and perhaps things like time of year so that we can once and for all put this mystery to bed. From the size of this guy, I reckon we can absolutely rule out any rumours of poaching now. This looks like a bird or something else has gone to town and just eaten everything including the head. But from memory, it was a similar time of year last year when Dusty first found all the other dead ones, i.e. just before coming out of hibernation at the end of winter.

waltraud wrote:

25 Aug 2017

Aaron, it could be that this animal had the same injury as all the other dead shinglebacks observed in the reserve - the opening allows ants to enter and clean up.

GeoffRobertson wrote:

25 Aug 2017

I think this is very interesting. The more stories I hear about animal behaviour, the more I am surprised, but these are pointers that life is much more complex. The number of records on CNM is a very small fraction of the animals out there but each record tells a story.

WillO wrote:

25 Aug 2017

Some dogs (even down to the size of large fox terriers) are very quick to kill shinglebacks and bluetongues. Foxes may also be able to tear open the body cavity in the way that is featured in your photos. It has been a pretty dry winter (soil has been very dry) and i wonder if some brumating lizards became a bit dehydrated (does seem unlikely given that they are really an arid-adapted species)?

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