Blotched Blue-tongue Lizard
Tiliqua nigrolutea
Meet the Blotched Blue-tongue
Habitat & Range
Blotched Blue-tongue Lizards are found in south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
They can live in a variety of habitats including grasslands, heathlands, open forests, woodland edges and areas with dense ground cover.
Shelter is important. Blue-tongues may use logs, rocks, dense vegetation and other protected places to hide from predators and extreme weather.
What's on the Menu?
Blotched Blue-tongues are omnivores and eat a varied diet of both plant and animal material.
Their natural diet can include insects, snails, slugs and other invertebrates, along with flowers, fruits and other plant material.
This varied diet makes blue-tongues useful predators of many small invertebrates found around gardens and natural habitats.
Amazing Adaptations
The most famous feature of a Blue-tongue Lizard is, of course, its brilliant blue tongue.
When threatened, a blue-tongue may open its mouth widely, flatten its body, hiss and display its bright tongue. This dramatic display can startle a potential predator and make the lizard appear more threatening.
Their broad bodies, strong jaws and sturdy limbs are well suited to life on the ground, while their patterned scales provide camouflage among vegetation, rocks and leaf litter.
Did You Know?
Blotched Blue-tongue Lizards don't lay eggs. Females give birth to live young.
Like other reptiles, their body temperature is influenced by their surroundings, so they use sunshine and sheltered areas to help regulate their temperature.
Behaviour
Blotched Blue-tongues are generally active during the day, particularly when conditions are warm enough for them to forage and move efficiently.
They may spend time basking in the sun before moving through vegetation and ground cover in search of food.
During Tasmania's colder months their activity can decrease considerably, and they may spend extended periods sheltered in protected locations.
Conservation & Threats
Blotched Blue-tongues can live successfully in both natural and some human-modified environments, but individual animals face a number of hazards.
Vehicle collisions, lawn mowers and garden equipment, dog and cat attacks, habitat loss and inappropriate use of pesticides can all cause injury or death.
Retaining logs, rocks, native vegetation and sheltered ground cover can provide important habitat for blue-tongues and many other small native animals.
Meet Cinnamon
Trowunna's Blotched Blue-tongue Lizard, Cinnamon, is a very unusual individual.
Cinnamon is amelanistic, meaning the dark pigment normally present in a Blotched Blue-tongue's colouration is greatly reduced. This gives Cinnamon a noticeably different appearance from the darker, strongly patterned blue-tongues usually seen in Tasmania.
Cinnamon has been a resident at Trowunna since 1991 and provides visitors with a wonderful opportunity to learn about reptiles, adaptations and natural differences in animal colouration.
How You Can Help
- Check long grass before mowing or using garden equipment.
- Keep cats contained and dogs under control around native wildlife.
- Avoid unnecessary use of snail pellets, pesticides and other garden chemicals.
- Leave suitable logs, rocks and vegetation as shelter where it is safe to do so.
- Never deliberately feed or relocate a healthy wild blue-tongue.
- Seek wildlife rescue advice if you find an injured blue-tongue.
Wildlife Welfare Comes First
Reptiles need access to appropriate temperatures, shelter and quiet areas where they can retreat.
Please do not touch, pick up or feed Trowunna's reptiles unless specifically invited to do so by a wildlife keeper. Always respect their space and follow keeper instructions.