frillnecks

[phantom]

Hi all just thought i would share my day ,while walking over my property,i came across a family of frillnecks (mum,dad,plus 3 babys) the babys didnt mind me picking them up,but mum and dad just ran off up a tree. is this normal for lizards to stay together ,the babys would have been about 15 cm funny looking reps .
can someone plz tell me why they flatten out when picked up.

 

[sxereturn]

Flattening out = trying to "scare" you. Like a dog baring it's teeth, or a puffer fish puffing up.

 

[phantom]

is that all it is well sorry didnt scare me

 

[bigguy]

Phantom,

Its not really trying to scare you. Some reptiles try and increase their size by various methods(flattening stomachs, raising frills, lifting up off the ground,etc) to make themselves look too big to be eaten by a predator. They just try to create the illusion that they are far too big to eat. Scaring is normally only a secondary effect.

 

[sxereturn]

^Makes sense.

 

[phantom]

sounds more like it thank you

 

[Fuscus]

Flatten out? Are you talking about frilled necks or bearded dragons. Where in QLD do you live?
As for the family issue, some lizards, notably the Egernia skinks (Land Mullets, Cunninghams) sometimes live in loose family groups, but I haven't heard of family groups in dragons but some Ctenophorus do live in loose colonies.

 

[sxereturn]

Water Dragons live in loose colonies. Roughly one male to 7-10 females.

 

[Fuscus]

Yeh, thats true, and in certain curcumstances, you can see youngsters in the colony

 

[NoOne]

Adult frillies would jump at the chance to eat babies i know mine would.
It's probably just a good area for them, they will pack in if the conditions are good.

 

[Fuscus]

I think I should clarify about the Egernia family groups, mainly the land mullet. I knew of this family that lived in a fallen tree, three adults and three or four young. The young showed no real fear of the adults, often sitting quite near them. I visited this family a couple of times until they disappeared and were replaced with a fat coastal. I have seen the simular behaviour with the major skink Egernia frerei but they are very shy and hard to observe. Incedently, that family was replaced by a RBBS.
When I have seen colonies of EWD, the young were not near the adults.

 

[phantom]

im sure they were frills ,im the gold coast in the hinterlands

 

[bigguy]

Phantom, I can assue you if you live on the Gold Coast then they were in actual fact Eastern Bearded Dragons. Beardeds always flattern out their bodies like a pizza when threatened, whereas Frillnecks normally just raise their frills.

Frillnecks are rarely found south of Rockhamption, however I have heard unconfirmed reports they are on Fraser Island north of Brisbane

Nearly everyone in NSW tells you of the Frillnecks they see living in the bush, but its always Bearded Dragons. Most people just dont realise there are two dragons with Frills, hence the mistake in identifacation.

 

[phantom]

ok ill take your word for it

 

[ryan]

wereabouts phantom? i just moved from mudgeeraba but still have the house down there. have you seen any of the yellow carpet pythons? i had an 8-9ft one living around my joint for a while then found a young one dead on the road. when i work out how to put pictures up i will.

 

[AGAMIDAE]

I would say that they are Eastren Bearded Dragons Pogona Barbata....frilled dragons are recorded once in fifty years at Greenbank by myself not to far from The GoldCoast Hinterland. Just abit of info..there next to nothing recorded about juv frillies as they spend all there lives in the canopy of tree and never seen untill much larger...also they havent been record to live as colonies..sorry but I think your looking at a bearded dragon often called frillie lizards..

 

[Fuscus]

I've read that frillies can be found in Lammington National Park and thats on the QLD/NSW border, but I havn't seen them there. If (and its a big if) any are there then they are proberly in the area called the lost world (sic), which is a large dry area. There has also been reports of a colony on the northern end of bribie Island.
As for the yellow carpet python , I've seen one very light colored coastal at Springbrook which isn't far from mudgeeraba. Have a look here http://reptile.senet.com.au/python.html#coastal for some photos of yellow coastals.

 

[womas4me]

No where near QLD but if in Broome play a round of golf. There are wild frillies there that sit in the rough while you play past them and also some monitors actively forage the roughs as well. Was a great herpy round of golf, just wish we had taken the camera now.

 

[ryan]

yep very similar to that fuscus. the 2 ive found have much less black- sort of just an outline of their blothches and are a consistant yellow (like your photos) all the way through. I never thought of them being hypomelanistic, just because the 2 i found were so different in size but is a possibility. I'll post a picture of the big one i had around shortly- just dont have photos at work. were those ones captive bred or collected from somwhere? A mate has also showed me similar photos of one he found fishing down at fingal.

 

[sxereturn]

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