Category: Lizards
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I Was Holding a Lizard No One Knew Was Deadly
I was handling a lizard no one knew was deadly, until just now. Gila Monsters are venomous. It’s been known from day one, since 1890. This is probably the first lizard species ever known to be venomous, over 120 years before we learned that Komodo Dragons are venomous. Gila monster bites are painful but have…
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Wildlife Education at Nature Discovery Park of K11 Musea
Glad to be invited by K11 MUSEA again! Sharing my wildlife experience and thoughts on animals is the best thing I can do in the city. Doing so at Nature Discovery Park, Hong Kong’s first urban biodiversity museum and sustainability-themed education park, means even more. This time I was with Freddie the Argentine black and…
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Talking About Wildlife Education On The News
I brought the journalists to a school where I presented animals at.
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Why Don’t Komodo Dragons Suck?
Learn why the Komodo dragon doesn’t suck in 15 seconds:
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On Live TV Show With My Chameleon And Snake
I was invited to go live on TV for RTHK 31 All Being Well with Alyson Hau and Ben Cullen. The entire team and the production are so professional. There’s no script and I didn’t have much prepared in advance. That’s fun! They learned about animals. I learned how a live TV show is produced…
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Blue Tree Monitor Is My Childhood Dream Lizard
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Toni Kingston (@kingstoninthewild) Good-looking ones have no personality(?) I said this was my childhood dream lizard. And, I also said blue is the rarest color in animals. But no, this lizard didn’t hold a special place in my heart only by its looks. Eye candies ain’t…
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Asian Water Dragon – Hong Kong Wildlife | 長鬣蜥 – 香港野生動物
Never getting a PR ID card (permanent residency) in spite of residing in here for decades. Expats who live in here and have their kids and grandkids bred, born and raised in here are called locals. But when it comes to wild animals it’s not how it works. An alien species, it is among the…
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Changeable Lizard – Hong Kong Wildlife | 變色樹蜥 – 香港野生動物
One of the most common lizards in Hong Kong is Calotes versicolor.It has many common names: Changeable lizard, Crested tree lizard, Oriental garden lizard, Eastern garden lizard, and even Bloodsucker. Common throughout Hong Kong including all major islands, it is also widely distributed in Asia. These lizards can grow up to 40centimeters. They are sun-loving…
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Water Monitor – Hong Kong Wildlife | 水巨蜥 – 香港野生動物
A gray area in Hong Kong fauna. Once thought to be locally extinct. Now they are here again! Some think they are native. Others think they are imports. Varanus salvator (Laurenti, 1768)Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: ReptiliaOrder: SquamataFamily: VaranidaeGenus: VaranusSpecies: salvator Where in HK?Very rare – reservoirs, rivers, Mai Po marshes Size: 1.5 – 3.2 m /…
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Chameleons in Madagascar I Encountered
In my last 6-week trip to Madagascar, I have been to most of the districts in the country except the extreme north such as Nosy Be where I already visited a few times in the past. I went on field trips every day (and night). There have been 183 chameleons in my findings. Here I’m…
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Earless Monitor Lizard – Hidden Gems of the Borneo Jungle
Science doesn’t know it well — The Earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis) is among the lizards that are least known to science. It is the last remaining species in the entire family Lanthanotidae. Until recently, only fewer than 100 specimens had ever been known since 1877 when the species was first described. Most are kept…
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Lizards in Madagascar I Encountered
There are over 300 species of lizards in Madagascar. During the trip, I’ve come across countless lizards that were mostly Chameleons, Leaf-tailed geckos, and Day geckos. Other than these 3 popular types of lizards, there had been some lesser-known species I found that are no less interesting. Three-eyed lizard (Chalarodon madagascariensis) One of the 8…
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Day Geckos in Madagascar I Encountered
Phelsuma is a genus of geckos mostly found in Mauritius and Madagascar. Day geckos are especially easier for me to spot than other geckos not only because of their bright green color but also their unusually diurnal behavior. I found them not only in the field but also in many of the rooms I stayed…
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Leaf-tailed Geckos in Madagascar I Encountered
Uroplatus is a genus of geckos, commonly known as leaf-tail geckos, which are endemic to Madagascar. If you think chameleons are experts at camouflage I’d say the leaf-tailed geckos are the masters of camouflage. At some point, they could be at the same difficulty level to spot in the jungle as stick insects. Not only does…
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Why Do Some Lizards Have Forked Tongues?
Animals tongues are much more useful than humans! Different Shapes of Tongues Most of the lizards have short and round tongues. Chameleons have elongated, extrudable tongues yet not forked. The only lizards with a serpent-like forked tongue are the carnivorous ones of a larger size in family Varanidae (Monitors, goannas, Komodo dragon) and Teiidae (Tegus, whiptails, caiman lizards).…
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Jesus Christ Lizard
There are over 10,000 extant species of reptiles. How many have you seen? There are only two lizards known to be able to run on water. This earned the renowned Basilisk of the new world the nickname “Jesus Christ lizard”. From the old world, there’s this lesser-known Sailfin Dragon that evokes even more of my…
