I have posted about lizards here before*, we often come across interesting ones in our travels and have heaps of small skinks in our garden, as does probably everyone in Australia. We also have Blue-Tongue lizards who live under the house and eat the frogs (grrrrr). This post is about a lizard we haven’t had in our garden though, a Goanna.
Goannas can be quite big and are pretty scary looking, but would rather run away from you than attack you. If we see one when we are driving through the bush they generally run up the nearest tree to get away. Still, I don’t recommend you mess with them.
Townsville Daily Bulletin 12 Jan 1948 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62910863
I was amused to find this article from 1948 about a goanna infestation at St Arnaud. I bet poor young Noel Petrie wasn’t amused after being chased through a paddock by two marauding goannas though.
I wonder what drove those goannas into a more populated area? Bushfire? Perhaps because it was summer food was getting scarce. Either way, a normally peaceful goanna will not stop at anything to get a feed…
When I was looking for an article to post I found this clip and just had to add it in. This guy is the scariest looking BBQ cleaner you will ever see. No wonder the owner of the BBQ was filming from inside the house 🙂 (He could have turned the telly down though!)
Some other lizard posts:
Buried words and Bushwa. 
Looks lovely. I wouldn’t have thought, for that size, they were so agile. I do wonder how it climbed up there though. Compared to our wildlife it does not look real! That would sure cause a stir over here.
They are very strong and agile and some types can climb up a tree seemingly without even trying. They have been known to climb up people after mistaking them for a tree too, which just means if your friend is poking one with a stick just walk away, otherwise you could be the one who ends up hurt!
Great nature post. These guys eat anything. Big claws – are they for ripping flesh or digging?
Thanks. 🙂
Goannas usually eat whatever they have caught whole so I guess the claws are mainly for hanging on to whatever they have caught. They would also be used for climbing trees (and bbq’s), and digging.
Looks like a small komodo! Poor Petrie that had to be an experience.
Although I like goannas I certainly wouldn’t want to be chased by one!
Good find on the clip 🙂 That goanna is far less fussy than me… I wouldn’t be eating anything that came off that barbie 🙂 I will show the clip to the G.O. as an added incentive to remember to put the cover back over ours… occasionally he forgets but he cleans it well, so even the next-door cats don’t bother. Ah, so Blue Tongues eat frogs too, could explain why we have a few less than usual… there’s usually a couple around at TA.
I thought the only goanna clips I would find would be of one halfway up a tree and filmed from a safe distance, I was very happy to find this one 🙂
Depending on the G.O.’s feelings towards lizards showing him the clip might not encourage cleaning, it might make him leave the odd snag out there in the hopes of a scaly visitor 😉
I love the Blue Tongues, but I love my frogs more so I don’t know if I should be happy that they are under the house or not!
That goanna was HUGE! I’d hate to be on the receiving end of its teeth and claws. Much prefer our little skinks. There are millions of them out in the garden at the moment and one even found its way into my kitchen sink. I rescued him but I can’t imagine how he a) got inside the house and b) found his way to my sink.
It is a pretty huge one! If it has been living on BBQ scraps it probably has high cholesterol too 🙂
It seems that there are millions of skinks here now too. I bet that there aren’t more, it is just that the weather has been perfect for them to be out and about and we hear them rustling around more.
I wonder if the one in your sink smelt a yummy dinner and arrived too late for his share? 😉
lol – if that skink was after dinner he missed out as I’d already thrown the scraps in the compost bin! He’s lucky he didn’t get thrown in the compost too. Then again that’s a lot of free dinners. 😉
😀
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