Yellow-throated Plated Lizard
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| Yellow-throated Plated Lizard | ||||||||||||||||
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| Gerrhosaurus flavigularis |
The Yellow-Throated Plated Lizard or Plated Lizard, (Gerrhosaurus flavigularis), is about 45½ cm (18 inches) in length and lives in the grassland and scrub of Sudan, Ethiopia and along Eastern Africa down to South Africa.
[edit] Description
A ground-living and burrowing lizard, this species is usually greenish-grey or brownish, with a yellow (or sometimes red) throat and often a narrow stripe down each side. It is well armoured, with hard body plates, and head shields fused to the skull. The tail is generally about two-thirds of the total length. Its limbs are well-developed, though its four five-toed feet are not specially adapted for digging. These lizards mate during the summer. In mating season the males head change color to either red, yellow or even light blue.
[edit] Behaviour
The lizard does most of its tunneling after rain when the ground is soft. Active by day, it hunts insects and is rarely seen, despite its size. It moves rapidly through the grass and at any sign of danger darts into its burrow, usually positioned under a bush.
The female plated lizard lays clutches of 4 or 5 eggs in a shallow pit which she excavates.
