Besotted with Bluey the Blue Tongue Lizard
Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 01:18PM Three years after starting to revegetate our suburban block and turn a barren wasteland of lawn into an abundant food forest and wildlife haven, a Blue Tongue lizard had taken up residence in our garden. And we couldn’t be more smitten!
He/She (aptly named Bluey) lives in the embankment next to the water tank, and spends the days soaking up the sun and traipsing through the undergrowth, eating snails, beetles and vegetation. Like all blue tongues, Bluey has a gentle laid back nature, and it’s surprising how close they will let you get to them. You know you’re getting too close though when these lizards flick their blue tongue at you – which they do to scare away predators. Though many people pick up and handle blue tongues, it’s obviously quite stressful for them to be picked up by a ‘giant’ and they don’t appreciate not having their feet on the earth - so we enjoy just watching Bluey just be. Far from a stealth predator, Bluey makes much noise rustling through the shrubbery, letting us know where to turn our adoring gaze....
We’re really lucky here on the coast of Oz to have such large lizards make their homes in suburban gardens. There’s six species of blue tongue in Oz, and our mate Bluey is a common eastern blue tongue, who will hopefully live up to 20 or more years of age. Blue tongues have many threats in the suburbs though like cats, dogs, kookaburras and currawongs. And then there’s oil guzzling cars and lawns mowers to look out for, and people who put down poisons to kill snails and other pests without realising that they’re also killing our native wildlife that eats the poisoned pests...
In Sydney, Kuringai Council runs a Backyard Buddies program where they breed and release blue tongues into suitable backyards. For a very cute clip of two excited kids getting a blue tongue lizard released in their garden, check out http://www.abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/facts/ep2_petfacts.htm, and for more info about blue tongues and what you can do to encourage them to your garden see http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/blue-tongue-lizard.html.
Blue tongues are wonderful helpers in an organic garden as they love to eat snails and slugs – unless of course they’re too blissed out basking in the sun!
Reader Comments (5)
Our blue tongue also likes strawberries! We don't mind sharing though.
Awesome,
Aww so cute! Bluey reminds me of the blue tongue that used to live in our yard that we named Sandra.
My kids have just become fascinated with blue tongues at the moment so your picture was well timed. Great basking picture.
Wonderful to hear you are all lovers of blue tongues too - even if they eat your strawberries!