Shingleback Advice

[ravynne]

Hi, I was wondering if someone could give me a little advice as to the best course of action to take with a wee Shingleback the neighbour left with me after it wandered into their yard. As I live in Penrith, I am quite surprised to see one at all as I was under the impression that they did not live east of the Mountains. It is about 13-14" long so not fully grown and has some very heavy scarring on both the back of its head and covering almost its entire tail. It looks like burn scars especially since the end of its tail is missing the end and is curled like burned paper. It has no open wound. The scars are old.

I plan on keeping it here for the next 24 hours as it was somewhat lethargic. It's eaten a meal of cat food and banana and already seems far more alert now than it did when it was handed to me.

I would rerelease it in the local parkland in a nearby new housing estate - it has a man-made lake, lots of low scrubland, and a good food supply, but I hesitate because again, I was under the impression that they did not do well over this side of the mountain range because of the humidity. So, I now wonder if I should contact WIRES instead. Thing is, I'm not sure if they would relocate it further west or simply release it themselves?

I'd rather not stress it more than it has been stressed already by handing it over to WIRES if they are only going to do what I can do myself.

Thoughts?

 

[richardsc]

possably an escaped captive or purposely released,best course of action is not to release it as im sure it would succumb,is there an animal rescue type place,perhaps talk to your relevent licencing department,dec for nsw i believe

 

[ravynne]

Thanks for the reply. I did as you suggested and got in touch with Parks and Wildlife who then put me through to the Department of Environment and Climate change. The lady I spoke to there was really lovely and just as concerned as I was about releasing it back into the local environment when it is not native to the area. She, like me, was not sure it would thrive or be able to find a mate. She contacted Sydney Metropolitan Rescue who then got the little Shingleback's story. At this point, I'm still not too sure what will happen to the little tyke as they are hunting down the best person to deal with the situation.

So he's with me for another day, not that I'm hating having it here. He's a lovely lizard, very placid and not shy in the slightest, and the longer he's here the more I am starting to suspect that he was initially someone's pet who has been dumped either before, or after, he's been injured.

 

[alison]

poor little fella! good on you for taking such good care of him, i'd be interested to know what ends up happening in terms of release/relocation. There's plenty of them out my way (west of the mts), he'd fit right in! hehe. Good luck