Can anyone help me identify this one?

Agamas, geckos, lizards, monitors and skinks indigenous to South Africa.

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Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Sumanda » Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:56 pm

We found this on our stoep on a small farm in De Wildt, Gauteng today at around 4:00 in the afternoon. I think it might be a type of monitor. It was between 35 and 40cm long. It was very lazy and let me get real close. Unfortunately the kids had to frighten it, and it finally started moving. Then it proceeded to throw up three times, before moving off after sitting still for a while.

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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby pinkscales » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:28 pm

IT Lookalike like a rock monitor.
Get it to a place that can reablitate it if it needs to be helper. If possible let it go where you found it. They are protected endangered animal. If you don't have a permit for one you'll be in a lot of trouble.
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Jamster » Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:53 am

Wow! you're very lucky to have one of those on your stoep. That is most definately a rock monitor (Varanus albigularis). They are awesome animals. They can grow to almost 1.5m in length and will eat anything that moves aswell as any form of dead meat. That little one is very cute and probably likes your stoep for basking. Try not to frighten it as it will lose its meals in order to run faster to get away. Oh and just remember that when they bite the jaws lock :)
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Bushviper » Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:52 am

They are common in that area. Just leave it be and it will get used to people and eventually interact with you. They will eat raw meat or eggs that you have put out for them too. They help to keep rats and mice away and if snakes bother you they will eat them as well.
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby boing » Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:32 am

Ours absolutely adores garden snails. We have acouple of people who use no chemicals on their gardens and bring in snails for him regularly. They are one of my favourites and having a wild one choose your home must be amazing!!
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Fooble » Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:58 am

Endangered um really?
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Sumanda » Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:17 pm

pinkscales wrote:IT Lookalike like a rock monitor.
Get it to a place that can reablitate it if it needs to be helper. If possible let it go where you found it. They are protected endangered animal. If you don't have a permit for one you'll be in a lot of trouble.



Thanks for the help and advice... it's a wild reptile that visited the stoep and left after a while. It is NOT being kept by us.
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Sumanda » Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:35 pm

Jamster wrote:Wow! you're very lucky to have one of those on your stoep. That is most definately a rock monitor (Varanus albigularis). They are awesome animals. They can grow to almost 1.5m in length and will eat anything that moves aswell as any form of dead meat. That little one is very cute and probably likes your stoep for basking. Try not to frighten it as it will lose its meals in order to run faster to get away. Oh and just remember that when they bite the jaws lock :)


1.5m and their jaws lock?! :shock:
You sure I'm lucky to have it? :)

Bushviper wrote:They are common in that area. Just leave it be and it will get used to people and eventually interact with you. They will eat raw meat or eggs that you have put out for them too. They help to keep rats and mice away and if snakes bother you they will eat them as well.


So I can safely assume that he might be the reason I no longer have any ducklings? Oh well, if he's into mice/rats he can move into the house and feast to his hart's content. Oh and any snakes that might show up.

We have a lot of "bloukopkoggelmanders" in the garden. Can anyone tell me what their English name is?
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Bushviper » Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:28 am

He might eat your ducklings or even the duck eggs. That is to make up for all the rats and mice he will be eating too.

The jaws lock only if you have been bothering him and actually try to pick him up. Otherwise he will never run up to you and bite you.

The bloukopkoggelmanders are known as Agamas. There are various species and if you type this into the search feature on this page it will bring up numerous threads about these amazing lizards. Despite what people have believed in the past they are not dangerous. Most of their diet is made up of beetles and grasshoppers. Try to get some pictures and post them as well.
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Sumanda » Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:43 am

I've got some very nice pictures of the agamas. I'll load them on my computer, to show you. There's about 4 breeding pairs living in our garden as well as a female that lives on our house. She's managed to fall through the gap in our ceiling into our bedroom once :)

http://blogs.parent24.com/Sumanda/ontho ... in-die-bed
http://blogs.parent24.com/Sumanda/here-be-dragons

I don't know if you're interested in birds, but we saw a marabo once:
http://blogs.parent24.com/Sumanda/kan-d ... -n-maraboe
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Re: Can anyone help me identify this one?

Postby Mikhail F. Bagaturov » Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:29 pm

Those agama lizards are Acanthocercus atricollis indeed - a species widely distributed in southern part of Africa and readily available fr sale i Europe.
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