Lizards and weather

[kap10cavy]

Now that hurricane season is upon us once again I like to watch my lizards for weater reports. I have found them to be more reliable than the weather channel.
If we or should I say them are expecting mild rain, they seem to bask more often for shorter periods. and spend more time underground.
If heavy rains, thunderstorms and the like are coming, they get goofy.
The albigs will dig and build what looks like small dams in front of the burrow. The savs will dig like mad and close off their borrows.
The argus will do one of 2 things, sometimes both. I see the crazy lizard digging more. From the looks it seems as if he is making the burrow deeper and wider. Sometimes it will climb to the highest spot it can reach, wrap it's claws around the branch and just go to sleep

Scott

[mbayless]

Hi Scott,
It is posts like this that should be written up and published in local herp society newsletters or in reptiles magazine as a short note that is worthy - anecdotal stuff like this is interesting, and tells more about these animals - they have natural barometers in their ears and nose perhaps....
markb

[Bartman]

That is one of the most interesting things ive ever read. Thanks for sharing. Im gonna keep an eye out on my savannah for signs of this.

[kap10cavy]

The snakes, turtles and other lizards do things when a storm is approaching. Maybe one day I will get some decent pics and write all my observations down and send them to you Mark.

Scott

[mbayless]

Hi Scott,
I would be happy to accept them - as you may or may not know, I have been known to co-author articles without my co-authors knowing I had done so - and write them in as senior author = its something I do when I am 'bored'....and want to stir up the pot a little.....

Thanks Scott,
markb

[kap10cavy]

That goes both ways Mark, lets not for get the grassland monitor book. hahahaha
You can do my spell checking and call yourself the Editor.

Scott

[mbayless]

Yeah, that grassland monitor book by Robert Sprackland is not the best monitor book out there for sure....I had NO part in that book what-so-ever...and I did not know about it until it was on shelves....
that was an entirely Sprackland affair....he has rewritten Giant Lizards and that should be out next year too...
markb

[crocdoc]

In terms of your lizards building a dam in front of their burrows, the local ants do something similar with their nest holes right before it rains. They build up the edges until the hole (normally flush with the surface) is surrounded by a small mound, looking like a mini-volcano.

[kap10cavy]

Well, normally they just throw the dirt all over the place. Right before a storm it seems as if they are more precise where the dirt goes. It's like a small hill in front of the burrow. I am only guessing what it is. Only the big male blackthroat does this.
The savs collapse their entrance. and I "think" the argus is going under then up into a wider space.
I need to borrow one of those flexable cameras to know for sure.

Scott

[mbayless]

There have been some good little articles about burrows and Varanus - publ. in Northern Territory Naturalist journal - how they maintain constant temp (and pressure) - and a typhoon would surely disrupt this delicate balance - so keep the water out, batten down the hatches/door and wait for fair weather....who would have known V. exanthematicus has sailor blood in them!? Interesting isn't it....
markb

[crocdoc]

For what it's worth, when a really big wet season hits the top end monitors like V panoptes panoptes have little choice but to take to the trees, as their burrows often flood. On my first trip to the Northern Territory I saw two massive males clinging to the same 'trunk' on a Pandanus stand in the centre of a flooded floodplain. They were well fed, as the same stand had many native rats huddled here and there. Several water pythons were curled up amongst the leaves at the top of the plants, too, and when we caught one it regurgitated nine rats.

[mbayless]

There are pics like this in one of my aborigine books - Sam probably knows the dudes who are in the book.... Thats a cool field report DK...Thanks.

I guess the same behavior is seen among midwestern Americans when the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers flood...go to the highground! A natural response among species no doubt...
markb

[kap10cavy]

So my argus is like other argus, they are all crazy. It sometimes climbs to a high point and latches on and goes to sleep. I mean it is latched on like it is now part of the branch. It would take alot of effort to pull it lose.

Scott

[mbayless]

My Argus would do that sometimes - usually to a large palm I have in the living room = he would wedge himself in there and lay there the fat blob - and hiss at me when I apprached. He liked to wedge himself between the window and desk in the tightest places and just hang out -and he would chase me when he saw my socks!
Argus are one of most intelligent goannas I have ever had the great pleasure to live with....an amazing beast.
markb

[oliver]

That was the most intresting thing iv red this whole year!!!!! Good work..


Oliver