Reptiles and Frogs
Skinks
Sighting 3380884

Tiliqua rugosa

Shingleback Lizard at Majura, ACT

Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
Tiliqua rugosa at Majura, ACT - 10 Sep 2017 12:34 PM
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Identification history

Tiliqua rugosa 10 Sep 2017 GeoffRobertson
Tiliqua rugosa 10 Sep 2017 AaronClausen

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User's notes

Another dead one. But only very recently died, still quite fresh and multiple large ants inside the vent area cleaning him out, so maybe ants are somewhat responsible to the vent damage we've been seeing???

2 comments

waltraud wrote:
   10 Sep 2017
How terrible.
Aaron I'm pretty sure the ants don't cause the injury that kill the Shinglebacks. Ants are some of Nature's most efficient cleaners as you pointed out. They require protein to feed their developing larva and the Meat ants shown on your photos are great scavengers collecting the protein from any meat source they find.
Imagine the world without ants!
Still, I'm puzzled and saddened about the large number of shinglebacks killed on Mt Majura, all of which apparently from the same injury - i haven't heard of similar killings at other places.
AaronClausen wrote:
   11 Sep 2017
Agree Waltraud. I know the ants aren't responsible for their injury/death etc, but wondering if possibly the ants open up the vent area more as part of their eating of the meat? Anyway I'm just hoping with enough sightings over time, we may eventually unpack this mystery or put some more pieces together.

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Location information

Sighting information

Species information

  • Tiliqua rugosa Scientific name
  • Shingleback Lizard Common name
  • Not Sensitive
  • Local native
  • Non-invasive or negligible
  • Up to 888.04m Recorded at altitude
  • 413 images trained Machine learning

Record quality

  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
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  • Additional attributes
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