please identify

[Nikkie]

Hi all,

My husband is in the Congo (in Kamina to be precise) and there he came upon the most interesting lizards he says. We have searched the Net trying to indentify these as, as he puts it: 'they are the cutest things alive..." They are very tame and would come close to the humans to 'beg' for crumbs. Here follows a discription of these lovelys: They range in size from 3cm to 20/30cm. The small ones as well as some of the bigger ones (maybe female?) have brown/grey bodies with bright green head and ligter green spots on the head. Some also have a copper stripe down the back. The big ones have a bright orange head with a blue body and blue and orange striped tail with a white point.

Please identify these for us and if possible please post a picture of them with your reply. I have not seen these myself as hubby has not taken the camera and thus cannot send me a pic and SA seem not to have an agreement with DRC so I cannot even receive or send and mms!

Thank you so very much and well done with this site! I am very impressed.

[Bushviper]

They sound like one of the "Platysaurus" or Flat lizards. These are a group of lizards that live in high densities and are known to beg for food.

At the Motopa Hills where Cecil John Rhodes is buried in Zimbabwe the local guide has "tamed" the lizards that they come and eat from his hand and crawl all over him. That is entertaining for the tourists and he is assured of a tip when posing for photographs.

Do a google search for this genus and then try to see which species would occur there. I dont have any books that cover the lizards of the Congo.

Please let us know if you get it worked out.

[Leos r gr8]

Hi Nikkie
Could it possibly be this liz? My dad works in that part of the world and he also says that they are that size and they beg for food from people



The [img] tags must be lower case.

Let's see if that works!

[Nikkie]

Thanx so much for the info. Unfortunately the pic that Leo posted cannot be viewed. I'll get back to you and report on my 'findings'.

[Nikkie]

wow! dunno what happened but as I was about to log off the pic leo sent came through. No Leo, it does not seem to be the same. The ones I'm referring to has bright green heads with ligter green spots - juveniles and females presumably. Thanx anyhow.

[froot]

I found some pics on the net more or less matching your description, have a look.

From site: http://www.midcoast.com/~bigwes/congobroad1.html


From site: http://www.africaguide.com/country/kenya/photolib.htm


From site: http://pernille.typepad.com/uganda/safari_safari/index.html

[Nikkie]

Thank you so much for the amazing pics Froot. What beauts!! Mayhaps these are the guys hubby is referring to. I will confirm. Thanx again for the quick response.

[Nikkie]

Btw Bushviper, thanx for that bit of info. Hubby says one of the guys that's there with him has also'tamed' his resident room lizzard and the latter is now climbing on the desk where he sits at the computer and comes within inches of his hand. I looked up the Platysaurus family but could not find any pics that looks like the ones hubby described. I get this feeling I might have to hop onto the next flight to Kinshasa and then on to Kamina to go and have a squiz for myself LOL

[s'mee]

Nikkie
These are most likely Red headed agamas (Agama agama). The first pic in Froot's post shows a male in breeding coloration. The pic posted by Leos r gr8
appear to show males beginning to develop their breeding coloration. The females and juveniles are usually shades of grey/brown with yellow/green heads. In some parts of their range the males may also have green rather than orange heads and tails in breeding season.

These lizards are extremely common throughout the entire Congo, and through most of tropical Africa

[s'mee]

Ok, went through my pics and pulled these out:

[img][img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/glazermal/Aagama.jpg[/img][/img]
Female/juvenile coloration (Guinea)

[img][img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n311/glazermal/Aagamabreedingmale.jpg[/img][/img]
Male in breeding coloration (DRC)