20 June 2013

Gungahlin’s adorable legless lizards

| Barcham
Join the conversation
19
Striped legless lizard

Simon Corbell just announced that a recent survey has uncovered a large population of adorable legless lizards in three of Gungahlin’s nature reserves.

The striped legless lizard is a vulnerable species so the discovery of such a large amount of the little guys is good news indeed.

“In terms of size of habitat and number of lizards supported, all three Gungahlin reserves are amongst the top five reserved habitats in Australia.

“In the 1990’s, the ACT Government made the decision to move the Gungahlin Town Centre away from key habitat and reserved over five square kilometres of grassland to protect the striped legless lizard.

“It is gratifying that nearly 20 years on, the Crace, Mulanggari and Gungaderra reserves each support thousands of lizards, one of the largest and highest density populations ever recorded.

“This report highlights the ACT Government’s commitment to strategic land management, conservation and planning foresight,” Mr Corbell said.

The striped legless lizard is now only found in the ACT and in seven sites in New South Wales, two in South Australia and around 70 in Victoria. Most sites are small and isolated and support relatively few lizards.

[Image by Benjamint444 under GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.2]

Join the conversation

19
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

watto23 said :

Antagonist said :

Rangi said :

I find heaps of them at my place in Murrumbateman, but aren’t the stiped ones I think they might be the pink tailed ones.

You mean an earthworm?

lizw said :

These creatures caused the total realignment of the town centre, and for Gungahlin Drive to become a major thoroughfare when it was only ever meant to be a minor road. I’m glad they’ve found a good number of them, though.

And also stopped the new dragway from being built out Majura direction, although it does not seem to have stopped Snowtown from getting the Majura Parkway expansion jammed through. I’m looking at you Mr Corbell.

Yeah lets blame Snowtown for everything. I’m pretty sure the users of the road and also Northbourne Ave, would argue it needed to be done. A drag strip can be built anywhere but good luck because there is always a NIMBY for drag strips.

They were going to build the drag strip out next to the airport. They did not proceed based on the presence of legless lizards at the proposed site. Corbell used his call-in powers to push the Majura expansion through to the pretty much the same area. This avoided a planning process and environmental assessments which identify the very same lizards in the very same place and put a stop to it. Good enough to put an end to the dragstrip. Not enough to stop the Majura Parkway,. Very convenient for Snowtown. No?

Gungahlin Al10:47 am 21 Jun 13

MrBigEars said :

Gungahlin Al said :

Huh. Really does look like a veeery long skink without legs doesn’t it? Interesting the way the stripes turn diagonal at the tail junction. Wonder if that’s normal or from losing it’s tail at some point?

Normal, according to Cogger. The paler, thinner 20-30mm at the tip might be regrowth, though. I’m not sure if Delma’s have unlimited regenerative capabilities.

Cheers for the info!

Apparently the legless lizards have eyelids so who knows you might even get a wink out of ’em!

Gungahlin Al said :

Huh. Really does look like a veeery long skink without legs doesn’t it? Interesting the way the stripes turn diagonal at the tail junction. Wonder if that’s normal or from losing it’s tail at some point?

Normal, according to Cogger. The paler, thinner 20-30mm at the tip might be regrowth, though. I’m not sure if Delma’s have unlimited regenerative capabilities.

Gungahlin Al said :

Huh. Really does look like a veeery long skink without legs doesn’t it? Interesting the way the stripes turn diagonal at the tail junction. Wonder if that’s normal or from losing it’s tail at some point?

That’s pixelation to obscure the secret markings.

When you catch one you can see ear bits and little flap/stumpy bits where legs would be. Yes they do bite.

Antagonist said :

Rangi said :

I find heaps of them at my place in Murrumbateman, but aren’t the stiped ones I think they might be the pink tailed ones.

You mean an earthworm?

lizw said :

These creatures caused the total realignment of the town centre, and for Gungahlin Drive to become a major thoroughfare when it was only ever meant to be a minor road. I’m glad they’ve found a good number of them, though.

And also stopped the new dragway from being built out Majura direction, although it does not seem to have stopped Snowtown from getting the Majura Parkway expansion jammed through. I’m looking at you Mr Corbell.

I think you’ll find that it wasn’t the legless lizard that stopped the dragway being built it was in fact the current Chief Lizard of Christmas Island who never wanted it even though he indicated otherwise..

Gungahlin Al9:26 am 21 Jun 13

Huh. Really does look like a veeery long skink without legs doesn’t it? Interesting the way the stripes turn diagonal at the tail junction. Wonder if that’s normal or from losing it’s tail at some point?

Antagonist said :

Rangi said :

I find heaps of them at my place in Murrumbateman, but aren’t the stiped ones I think they might be the pink tailed ones.

You mean an earthworm?

lizw said :

These creatures caused the total realignment of the town centre, and for Gungahlin Drive to become a major thoroughfare when it was only ever meant to be a minor road. I’m glad they’ve found a good number of them, though.

And also stopped the new dragway from being built out Majura direction, although it does not seem to have stopped Snowtown from getting the Majura Parkway expansion jammed through. I’m looking at you Mr Corbell.

Yeah lets blame Snowtown for everything. I’m pretty sure the users of the road and also Northbourne Ave, would argue it needed to be done. A drag strip can be built anywhere but good luck because there is always a NIMBY for drag strips.

They look like the sort of fauna that are vulnerable to having their heads stomped by an excess of kangaroos.

I’ve seen quite a few legless lounge lizards

Haha, I thought legless lizards were just a metaphor!

Rangi said :

I find heaps of them at my place in Murrumbateman, but aren’t the stiped ones I think they might be the pink tailed ones.

You mean an earthworm?

lizw said :

These creatures caused the total realignment of the town centre, and for Gungahlin Drive to become a major thoroughfare when it was only ever meant to be a minor road. I’m glad they’ve found a good number of them, though.

And also stopped the new dragway from being built out Majura direction, although it does not seem to have stopped Snowtown from getting the Majura Parkway expansion jammed through. I’m looking at you Mr Corbell.

I find heaps of them at my place in Murrumbateman, but aren’t the stiped ones I think they might be the pink tailed ones.

spinact said :

Looks like a snake to me.

Not with that tail to body ratio, girlfriend. *snap, snap, snap*.

I’ll show myself out.

These creatures caused the total realignment of the town centre, and for Gungahlin Drive to become a major thoroughfare when it was only ever meant to be a minor road. I’m glad they’ve found a good number of them, though.

Do they bite?

It’s coming right for us!

Looks like a snake to me.

And sounds like they may need to be culled if the population grows much more

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.