Kreeti’s Creatures

Hi!!!
As you saw in the picture above, (okay, please don’t be freaked out by it, it’s a poor little stereotyped lizard ok?!) this week’s animal is Australia’s Blue Tongued Lizard!!! It’s very appropriately named, in my opinion, and they’re awesome too! I’ve seen these guys thrice, once in a zoo, once at my school, and once at a sanctuary. I actually got to touch one once, and all he did was stick his tongue out and glare at me. Like he was trying to tease me. Naughty. 😒 (Did he glare at me or just look at me? I’m not sure but I think that particular lizard glared at me.😕) Anyway, his scales felt weirdly smooth. I couldn’t keep stroking him forever of course, so I left. That was my first encounter with a blue tongued lizard, but it wasn’t my last.

BLUE-TONGUED LIZARD

There are actually 6 types of blueys, (this is what people call blue tongue lizards) some including: Eastern Blue-Tongue Lizards, Northern Blue-Tongue Lizards, Blotched Blue-Tongue Lizards, and the Shinglebacks. Now let’s bust some myths about the Blue-Tongue Lizards.

Myth 1: Blue Tongue Lizards are poisonous. This is WRONG. Although it’s very easy to think that they are poisonous because of their brightly coloured tongue and their angry (evil) stare, they’re not. The brighter the colour there is, the more poisonous it is, so therefore, the bright blue colouring on this lizard’s tongue must be a “STAY AWAY FROM ME! I AM VENOMOUS!” signal, right? Well, no. The reason for their blue tongues is so that they can flick them out whenever they are threatened to give the illusion that they’re poisonous. They may also stand on their hind legs, puff up their chest and hiss to maximize the effect. Their tongue is particularly bright in UV light, (ultraviolet light) and they’ll stick their tongue out as a last resort to avoid getting eaten. They mainly rely on camouflage to help them to avoid hawks and other predators. Whenever that fails,  the lizards poke their tongues out as far as possible, distracting the birds with a flash of bright blue. And you could see the tongue under disco lights.

Myth 2: If you get bitten by a blue tongue it will never let go and you have to chop it’s head off. This, of course, is not true. The fact: If you are bitten by a blue tongue, it will bite hard and stay there for quite some time, (maybe 5 minutes at the max,) but will let go and merely leave you with a large bruise. It must hurt though. Ouch!

Myth 3: Blue tongues keep snakes away. This is, again, wrong, wrong, wrong. Blue tongues may eat young and vulnerable baby snakes but adult snakes are known to eat blue tongue lizards themselves. You’ll probably find nothing that can keep snakes completely away.

Myth 4: (The last one) A wound made by a blue tongue lizard will reappear every year on the day the bite happened. (Basically the “anniversary” of the bite.) Okay, do you know just HOW SILLY this myth is?! No words necessary.

Now that we’ve got the myths out of the way and cleared, let’s learn some facts about them.

Blue tongue lizards are omnivores, and eat mostly insects and fruits ‘n’ veggies, like: dandelion, milk thistle, (which I think is a weed,) watercress, banana, apple, pawpaw, (it’s like a papaya,) pear, green beans, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, parsley, tomato, crickets, worms, snails, and slugs, baby snakes, and berries. They have many small, hidden, teeth, and have a powerful bite to crush hard shelled prey, like snails. (IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER POISON SNAILS IN YOUR GARDEN OR BACKYARD. Why? Well you honestly never know, a blue tongue could come into your garden and eat up all the poisoned snails. And then the poison gets into the blue tongue lizard’s body. And then it gets horribly sick. And then it could die.) They don’t chew their food. Instead, they just bite and swallow. Also, they don’t hunt for prey. They just search for food during the warmer parts of the day. The only lizard that actually hunts and kills prey in this family is the pygmy blue tongue lizard. Here’s a weird fact: Adult bluetongues eat every two days in warm weather, in colder weather every three days. (Roughly.) If the temperature is not right, they may refuse to eat at all! Weird, right? Apart from their eyes and ears, these lizards use an extra organ on the roof of their mouth to detect chemicals released by prey, called the Jacobson’s organ. I think all snakes and lizards have the Jacobson’s organ, plus many mammals like mice, rats, elephants, cows, dogs, cats, goats, pigs, bears, and giraffes. The Jacobson’s organ is also called the vomeronasal organ, or VMO.

Okay, I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about this amazing, slightly-creepy-yet-cute-in-my-eyes animal. I will be back tomorrow!