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Shingleback lizard — printable fact sheet
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Shingleback lizard
Tiliqua rugosa
The shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa) is a heavy, slow, armoured blue-tongued skink of southern and western Australia, and it does something almost no other reptile does: it is monogamous, and pairs find each other again year after year. Long-term fieldwork in South Australia has tra…
Did you know?
- Despite their tough appearance, Shingleback lizards are gentle and can even recognize their long-term partners after months of separation.
- Shingleback pairs have been recorded reuniting with the same partner for over two decades, the longest-known monogamy in any reptile. A newborn shingleback can weigh a third as much as its mother, and a litter of two can be more than half her body weight. The species is riddled with a tick-borne blood parasite, and researchers have used the ticks passed between mates as evidence of just how close the pair bond is. Its short, thick tail is a fat store, and animals in good years enter winter with tails visibly swollen.
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