Saturday 12th September
We witnessed the emergence of 13 baby lace monitors from where mum had buried them in a termite mound about nine months earlier. The mother digs into the mound, lays the eggs and then leaves, letting the termites cover the eggs as they repair their mound. The termite mound provides a perfect temperature and humidity controlled natural incubator for the eggs. The termites clean the area of any bacteria and then provide themselves as food for the newly hatched young. The mother Lace Monitor has to come back to the mound to free her young as they are not strong enough to dig out of the hard substance created by the termites. The mother of these babies had obviously been back to free the young and they were in the process of emerging when we found them.
The chances of all 13 surviving are very slim. I respect these amazing reptiles and the job they do cleaning the bush of carrion. The babies were very cute, but already feisty. What amazed us the most was that as soon as they were out they started to ascend the tree.
12.9.09 A baby emerges
There is an egg in the foreground and the monitor has a termite on its nose.
Two Active Babies
Just starting to emerge
Climbing and sensing the world through its tongue.
I have set some of the pictures into a photo story, it is set to music so turn your sound on. Baby Lace Monitors Face An Alien World
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 7:58 pm. Add a comment
Although I at times, despair of humanity and what we are doing to the planet there are other moments when I am uplifted again by acts of kindness. Sunday the 23rd August 2009 was my chance to have one of those moments. Travelers coming from west of Dunedoo found two bearded dragons that had been hit by cars in separate incidents on the Golden Highway. They picked them up and carried them on their laps wrapped in towels until they reached Gungal where I was able to meet them at the end of our road . One had unfortunately had died from its injuries before we got it home.
Although many people love to see these wonderful creatues sunning themselves by the side of the road few people would stop to pick them up as reptiles aren’t seen as cute and cuddly like some of our fauna.
I took them both to our vet, Ted in Merriwa and the “Beardie” that had died had had massive internal injuries and a smashed jaw most likely from a car going right over the top of it. The survivor had a damaged but not broken lower jaw and was given a long acting antibiotic and we supported its healing with heat and fluids.
By Saturday 5.9.09 the bearded dragon was successfully and I suspect, very happily, released at Rocky Creek Wildlife Refuge . I put him on a rock to warm up in the sun. Reptiles are ectothermic and need an external heat source to keep their body temperature at a suitable level for movement. observed it and was able to take some photographs.
The Bearded Dragon warms itself up prior to release.
Look at those wonderful scales and feet
"I am not here, I am a rock and not a living creature so go away."
Just after I had placed the dragon on the rock I heard “tssh, tssh, tssh,” as Scruffy our oldest released wombat made her way out of the burrow under the house and sauntered across the grass towards me.
Scruffy on a mission of investigation.
As Scruffy approached the dragon assumed the, ‘I am not here, I am a rock’, position and proceeded to remain completely still whilst Scruff sniffed around it.
Smell is one of the major senses for wombats so she has to get up close and personal. Wombats also have NO sense of personal space.
Scruffy's size and shadow dwarfs the lizard.
In sympathy with the lizard and to relieve its stress as soon as I had captured these once in a lifetime photos I chased Scruffy back to her burrow by making a lot of noise. Escape to the burrow is an essential skill for a wombat to remove itself from danger and so it was part of her pre-release to the wild training.
The lizard then settled to contemplate his next move. I moved myself to the computer room and was able to observe it as after checking out all directions he walked calmly across the lawn to commence a new life far away from a major highway.
Contemplating the future after meeting a wombat.
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 5:10 pm. Add a comment
