Animal Diaries Archive

About the Bluey

30 June 2006

Blue Tongue Lizards… they are cute little reptiles but at the same time they are very eye-catching creatures! So how did they get their name, the Blue Tongue Lizard? Well, funnily enough, they have a blue tongue. A lot of thought went into naming them.

They are found throughout most of Australia but usually live in places where there is a lot of ground cover, so your backyard makes a perfect home for these friendly guys, with all that leaf litter and bark to hide under. You have to be careful because they love to eat snails, slugs and caterpillars so if you use snail baits around the garden and they eat the snails it can then poison the Bluey. Also, if you happen to have cats around, be sure to keep an eye on them, because if you take a look at the Bluey they aren't really built for a quick getaway. With four very short legs and such a big body they don’t stand much of a chance against predators. Their main defense is… Yup, you guessed it, it's that big beautiful blue tongue. When they feel threatened they will turn towards the predator, sticking out their blue tongue which stands out very well with the pink in their mouth. If this display of colour doesn’t work they will then begin to hiss while they flatten out their body, making themselves looking bigger in size. You wouldn’t want to get bitten by them either, because when they bite it may not be a hard bite but they can hang on for a fair while.

Here at the Zoo you can enjoy the experience of actually patting one of our cute Blueys. Here in the picture we have Louey. So next time you're in come over and say g’day!