LITTORAL WHIPTAIL-SKINK

Photographed on Ugar (Stephen) Island, Torres Straits, March 2020

152             LITTORAL WHIPTAIL-SKINK               Emoia atrocostata

AUSTRALIAN LIZARDS              107     

Also known as Mangrove Skink or Littoral Skink. Found on rocky shorelines and in foreshore vegetation, including mangrove forests; swims in tidal pools. Widespread in Japan, through south-east Asia and into south-west Pacific; tip of Cape York and Torres Strait Islands.

MANGROVE MONITOR

Photographed on Boigu Island, Torres Straits, March 2020

  

151               MANGROVE MONITOR               Varanus indicus

AUSTRALIAN LIZARDS                 106

Also known as Mangrove Goanna or Western Pacific Monitor Lizard. Distributed from northern Australia and New Guinea to the Moluccas, Soloman Islands, Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands and Mariana Islands. An opportunistic carnivore, feeding on the eggs of reptiles and birds, mollusks, rodents, insects, crabs, smaller lizards, fish and carrion. The only monitor capable of catching fish in deep water.