Blue Tongue Lizards

Located all across Australia are Blue Tongue Lizards. There are several different species but the most common are the:

1. Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard
2. Central Blue Tongue Lizard
3. Western Blue Tongue Lizard
4. Shingleback Lizard (although not a "Blue Tongue" a close relative)

If you want an article containing more detail about some of these incredible reptiles just ask!

To all the images I used in this blog post.

Image 1

http://coolcompanions.com.au/eastern-blue-tongued-skink/

Image 2

http://www.crocodilesanddragons.com.au/skinks.html

Image 3

http://www.oakvalefarm.com.au/centralian_blue-tongue_lizard.php

Image 4

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/tiliquamultifasciata/interesting/

Image 5

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Blue-tongued_lizard-dist.png

Image 6

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colonel_007/3519583355

Image 7

http://coolcompanions.com.au/shingleback-lizard/

Image 8

http://www.oakvalefarm.com.au/shingleback_lizard.php

Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard

Image 1

The Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard (Tiliqua Scincoides) lives along most of the Eastern and Northern Coast of Australia.

Image 2

Central Blue Tongue Lizard

Image 3

The Western Blue Tongue Lizard (Tiliqua Fasciata) lives in Central Australia and along the coast of Western Australia.

Image 4

Western Blue Tongue Lizard

Image 5

The Western Blue Tongue Lizard (Tiliqua Occupitalus) lives along the South Western coast of Western and Southern Australia.

Image 6

Shingleback Lizard

Image 7

The Shingleback Lizard (Tiliqua Rugosa) is found in Southern Western Australia as well as most of Southern Australia and New South Wales.

Image 8

Conservation
Blue Tongues all across Australia are in decline for several reasons:

• Domesticated and feral animal attacks
• Blue Tongues have short and stumpy legs and are unable to run away
• Blue Tongues open up their mouths and show off their blue tongue to scare away predators
• Dogs are normally fooled (if only temporarily)
• Cats are not fooled and will continue to attack
• Lawn Mowing
• It is commonplace to find a blue tongue lizard in your yard when you are mowing, but the blue tongues will not run away when they hear the lawnmower- instead choosing to fight it
• Insecticides
• Blue Tongues love snails! They will not leave one alone if they see it.
• Because of snail poisons, blue tongues commonly eat poisoned snails and die. 
• Avoid using snail poison in your backyard- the snail population will recover but the blue tongue population will not!
• As well as loving snails, blue tongues also love strawberries!
• They will eat any strawberry, whether it is ripe or not!
• Because of poisons sprayed on plants, the blue tongues can also die from poisoned strawberries.

You can help save blue tongues by:

• Keeping your pets inside
• Walking pets on leashes
• Leaving blue tongues alone if you see one on the ground
• Not using insecticides! The blue tongues can keep the snail population under control just fine if you don't kill them!