Yellow-bellied Water Skink at Cotter River, ACT
Identification history
| Eulamprus heatwolei | 25 Nov 2017 | MichaelMulvaney | ||
| Unidentified | 25 Nov 2017 | Christine |
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User's notes
I assume these are Yellow bellied Water Skinks. Not sure if this behaviour may count as a breeding behaviour?? One was biting the leg of the other, which turned and bit at the first ones head. There was a struggle, and they separated, but again the first one grabbed the hind leg of the one which was trying to run away. Again the second one turned and grabbed the first ones head with its mouth. Eventually they separated again, and ran past me into the thicker grass. Third pic is the first skink which was running a bit more slowly than the other.
1 comment
WillO
wrote:
26 Nov 2017
Yes, you are correct, these are E. heatwolei. This species is very territorial and each suitable basking and foraging area usually has a dominant male who will fight quite aggressively with competing (or subordinate) males who come too close. You were lucky to be able to creep and get these good photographs. WillO
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Nearby sightings
Location information
- Coordinates 148.835692-35.354896
- Maps Namadgi National Park
- Places Cotter River, ACT
Sighting information
- 2 Abundance
- 24 Nov 2017 12:00 AM Recorded on
- Christine Recorded by
Species information
- Eulamprus heatwolei Scientific name
- Yellow-bellied Water Skink Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1619.1m Recorded at altitude
- 378 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
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
