Pink-tailed Worm-lizard at Cooleman Ridge
Identification history
| Aprasia parapulchella | 14 Dec 2023 | wombey | ||
| Aprasia parapulchella | 13 Dec 2023 | lundier |
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User's notes
I came across this pink-tailed worm lizard on the BNT on Cooleman Ridge about 100 metres north of the farm dam on Monday 11 December 2023 at 2.30 pm
12 comments
BethanyDunne
wrote:
14 Dec 2023
Rob are you around today? I can quickly show you how to add a photo. Send me an email! Would be very interested to know if they are out and about at the moment. Was it alive?
BethanyDunne
wrote:
14 Dec 2023
I thought they would be underground more now given the warmer weather, especially at 2pm that day it was hot. Is that unusual @wombey?
wombey
wrote:
15 Dec 2023
I've never seen one out in the open. We would need the observer to state how they first came across the lizard. Was it under a rock or did they first encounter it out like this?
lundier
wrote:
15 Dec 2023
We came across it just lying in the middle of the track. I thought it was a little snake at first. As I got closer it started coming towards me in in an agitated/aggressive way and then followed me in a circle as I moved away from it. I made no attempt to touch it or pick it up. It moved very quickly. Soon it just lay on the track which allowed us to take the photos. Next time I'm up on Cooleman Ridge I'll see if there are any rocks near to where I saw it.
WillO
wrote:
16 Dec 2023
An interesting record because this species is very rarely observed active on the ground surface away from the ant burrows that they live in. In all my years of working with this species (30 years) I have only ever seen them active above ground twice - they can shimmy along very rapidly for a species that lives under ground. The individuals I saw were adult males, maybe they were searching for a new ant nest or a mate. Thanks for submitting the record. Will Osborne.
lundier
wrote:
17 Dec 2023
Yesterday we established exactly where we saw it. About 100 metres north of the farm dam on a bare part of the track ie with no grass down the middle and near a small ants nest with large rocks off to the left of the track. Happy to take anyone there.
WillO
wrote:
21 Dec 2023
Thanks for that additional information. Yes that does sound like potential habitat. The lizards live in ant burrows under rocks. However, for some reason we dont know the answer to, they dont occur in improved pasture even if rocks are present (ground layer consisting only of introduced agronomic species and not native grasses). One possibility is that the ants in these improved pastures are not the right species for the lizard.
Location information
- Maps Cooleman Ridge
- Places Stromlo, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 13 Dec 2023 08:46 PM Recorded on
- lundier Recorded by
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Priority species lists
Queanbeyan-Palerang Animals To Watch!
Additional information
- Alive / healthy Animal health
Species information
- Aprasia parapulchella Scientific name
- Pink-tailed Worm-lizard Common name
- Sensitive
- Very rare / threatened
- Non-Invasive
- 91 images trained Machine learning
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Confirmed by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
