Very funny

[ianinoz]

Got this older EWS who has lived in my garage for several years and always comes out of her (?) hiding spot (she has a few good spots) and hangs about and watches me, she shows up within a minute or two when ever I visit my man-cave.....and if I put anything new on floor she can't resist the temptation to check it out. I've never chased her or tried to catch her, but sometimes I have needed to shoo her if I'm scared she'll get hurt if something heavy or sharp falls on her.

I know she's very partial to mealworms , been taking some with me when ever I go into my man-cave to give to her lately. A couple of times a week. This lizard will come right up and take the worms off the floor from right at my feet.

This afternoon I decided to do a little test of how smart she is. I placed 8 thawed out mealworms and one live mealworm in a spare (converted strawberry punnet) feeding station - the same kind I've using for the other EWSs. She's never seen one of these contraptions before .

Was very funny to watch her go straight to it and trying to eat the wiggleling worm she could see inside it through the clear plastic side (there is only one entry hole), she tried this for about 20 seconds virtually pushing the punnet along the floor before she stopped, and looked at me (as if to say "ha ha ... very funny - don't you laugh at me ... I'll show you...."), then she circled it a couple of times and went straight in through the hole and got her reward.

I wish I had a video camera - would be a great Australia's Funniest Video.

Cleaver old girl. Showed she has some smarts and problem solving skills.

Lizard in reverse backing herself out of the punnet was funny looking too. (Proves Scrapper wasn't stuck inside the feeding station the other day, was curled up and liked in there and was probably very cozy).

Water skinks are amazing little guys. Always capable of surprizing you by doing something you never expected. And a load of fun to have around.

 

[Tassie97]

D: hope it didn't hurt itself

 

[GeckoRider]

Ok... it would have been funny to see

 

[ianinoz]

To the above trolls - go troll somewhere else, I'm sure there is rule about not derailing other people's threads and not baiting other posters.

If you aren't interested, do the adult thing, stay out of my threads.

 

[ianinoz]

Ok... Why dont you just buy one?.. but yes it would have been funny to see

Don't need to (buy any - there's no sense in doing so - I've got a bunch of wild ones living in my garden, under my house, in my backyard and in my garage. Who are friendly and trust me - some more than others).
If I ever buy any lizards it'll be a species I hon't have living on / visiting my property.

I'd rather have my lizards free to interact and come and go as they choose. Unlike captives who have no choice in the matter and would depend on me for everything.

 

[mysnakesau]

I love seeing wildlife come into my yard, and I am fortunate that my dog doesn't bother them. He is curious but has never attempted to harm them.

Last summer I spotted a water dragon in my yard, a few times in different places. Then he disappeared over winter. I hope he comes back. I have lots of resident blue tongues, have seen some other skinks that are fairly big, and have seen one python who stands accused for knocking down my rodent tubs last year, releasing all my mice and rats. There was also a cat who was also involved. Not my cat. I don't own one, so that kitty doesn't get any welcome gestures here - only the dog who gladly shows him where the boundaries are.

 

[snakeluvver]

All I have visiting my property regularly are garden skinks.
In my old house we had a lace monitor visit every few days, that was pretty cool. The next door neighbours threw some meat for it (yes, I know, feeding a wild animal = wrong) so it hung around the place.

 

[snakeynewbie]

We get the water skinks around here, they are such spectacular critters, also had jacky dragons and little common garden skinks(or possibly they are juvenile water skinks) as well as brown tree frogs. I love having so many animals in close proximity.

 

[Fang101]

I love seeing wild animals our yards too, at the moment we have about a dozen amphibalurus's, lots of bynoes and common garden skinks and other skinks like gidgees and sometimes I see a few browns. we used to have a few stimsons comeing here because we bred mice, they used get in the cages, eat the mice then can't get out lol, but unfortunatly ther're either gone or dead now. Ianinos how long does it take for a wild lizard to get used to you like that.

 

[snakeynewbie]

The water skinks we have here are pretty brave. I rescued one recently that had been attacked by a local cat and all I had to do was put a tub in front of it and give it a nudge and it jumped in, it wasn't badly injured enough to cause it to be slow they just don't seem to be particularly concerned about you being near them

 

[ianinoz]

We get the water skinks around here, they are such spectacular critters, also had jacky dragons and little common garden skinks(or possibly they are juvenile water skinks) as well as brown tree frogs. I love having so many animals in close proximity.

Yep, it's nice having them around and tolerated by them, the occasional meally or dead cricket certainly helps them learn you are no threat.
I like our regular magpies and rosellas and doves who visit too. The magpies are very cheaky and mischievious and often very funny to watch - espeicially when they are playing, they'll follow you inside given half a chance.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

This one time, I was sitting on the bank of a Victorian river fishing for trout.

A very friendly water skink came close enough for me to
feed it some of the worms i was using (unsuccessfully).

That little water skink went on to catch me the 2nd biggest trout ive ever caught.













Nah, only joking...

 

[waruikazi]

Think the Eastern Water Skinks are bold. You should meet the Northern Water Skinks, slightly larger, more aquatic and much more bold. I made such good friends with this one that he gave me a ride while we were giving him a ride back to my place for dinner!

Not joking either!

 

[ianinoz]

I love seeing wild animals our yards too, at the moment we have about a dozen amphibalurus's, lots of bynoes and common garden skinks and other skinks like gidgees and sometimes I see a few browns. we used to have a few stimsons comeing here because we bred mice, they used get in the cages, eat the mice then can't get out lol, but unfortunatly ther're either gone or dead now. Ianinos how long does it take for a wild lizard to get used to you like that.

The old girl EWS in garage has been like that for years , at least 4 or 5 years, I think she may have originally started off by grabbing the occasional raw prawn that sometimes fell on the floor when I was going fishing (I never take a full bag of prawns - just a few dozen in a little takeaway tub to get me started and I only thaw them out as needed, this way a bag of green prawns can last me several trips before they go off) or when putting my gear away after fishing (they aways seemed to disappear very mysteriously - I originally thought there was cheaky mouse or rat in the garage until one day I saw her darting off with a bit of green prawn in her mouth.

Lizzy took about 3 or 4 months to get her to be comfortable in close proximity with me, a bit longer with my wife as she used to get a fright when ever she saw Lizzy's tail and this would frighten Lizzy who would hide when my wife came into the room. They are now friends too. She's even hand fed Lizzy once and often talks to Lizzy when she see's Lizzy on the transformer, or the top of the lounge, or hunting about. Lizzy often wonders down the hall and checks out every bed room, the laundry and the bathroom, and goes into my wife's craft room where she finds all sorts of strange things on the floor to investigate (more often than not my wife doesn't know Lizzy is in there with her unless I tell her she's got a visitor).

Again, food treats helped build her trust in me. She is now very happy to accept mealies and crickets and roaches from between my fingers or off my hand (she's only accidently bit me a couple of times and is very dainty in how she accepts the live insects, and tolerates even seems to enjoy the occasion handsurf and a nice tickle under the chin from time to time.

Lizzy often spends most of the day chilling out and loafing about and basking on the transformer or the top of the lounge and is quite unperturbed about my wife and I moving about the room and being very close to her so long we don't come up on her from behind her and startle/surprize her. She also has absenses from inside that sometimes last several days - yes I do worry about her when she's AWOL and I do often encounter or see her outside on the patio or under the a/con or in the flowerbed especially if it's warm and sunny there.
She seems to know when nasty (very hot or cold and rainy) weather is coming as she shows up back inside before it arrives and stays until it has gone.

She's doesn't like visitors and keeps a low when we have visitors.

That little EWD only took a few visits to become more inquisitive than scared. Sitting quietly where it (she?) could see me and tossing it the occasional dead cricket or live mealworm (onto the foot path) helped. It doesn't seem interested in my resident EWSs though they are cautious when the little EWD shows up (except for Scrapper - the big a-male EWS who's been hanging about) stands his ground and keeps a watchful eye on the interlopper. (Scrapper is very brave - I've seen him chase off dogs when they came too close when they were snooping about.)

I've noticed that each and every of my resident EWSs has a unique personality all of their own and they all cotton on new things and adapt very quickly. They learn quickly.

I love seeing wildlife come into my yard, and I am fortunate that my dog doesn't bother them. He is curious but has never attempted to harm them.

Last summer I spotted a water dragon in my yard, a few times in different places. Then he disappeared over winter. I hope he comes back. I have lots of resident blue tongues, have seen some other skinks that are fairly big, and have seen one python who stands accused for knocking down my rodent tubs last year, releasing all my mice and rats. There was also a cat who was also involved. Not my cat. I don't own one, so that kitty doesn't get any welcome gestures here - only the dog who gladly shows him where the boundaries are.

Water dragons are amazing lizards and are IMO very handsome. Seem very smart too.

 

[Fang101]

Thanks for that Ian, I found that very interesting, especially with your skinks as I find those very jumpy and wont let me near them, whereas the beardies are genially better and will let me stick my hand out to them without running away, probaly becasue I feed them mealworms. Bet you were happy to see that it was a lizard in your garage eating the prawns rarther then a mouse or rat.

 

[ianinoz]

Thanks for that Ian, I found that very interesting, especially with your skink (lizzy) as I find those very jumpy and wont let me near them, whereas the beardies are genially better and will let me stick my hand out to them without running away, probaly becasue I feed them mealworms. Bet you were happy to see that it was a lizard in your garage eating the prawns rarther then a mouse or rat.

Sure was. Lucky too for the lizard, as I was going to take action to get rid of the suspected rodent.
I have noticed that when Lizzy came out of her winter slumber in July that the resident family of house mice disappeared. So I guess the old girl EWS in my garage is doing me a favour by dealing with mice as well as cockroaches and spiders in the garage. Not seen a redback in the shed for years.