Author Gary Taylor ◦
Well here’s two things I’ve heard about, but in all the time I’ve spent out in the bush I’ve never actually encountered… 😃
So, doin’ our weekly bush run/road trip, whipping down a quiet little country road, I see an old beer can in the bush off to the side suddenly rise in the air and race forward… That’s odd, they don’t normally do that 😄 So I hit the skids, spun around and went back for a look… 😕
Poor little monitor (Perentie?) had his head stuck in the can…
Looking at where he’d come from was a massive Iridomyrmex purpureus nest (Southern meat ant)… he must have blindly stumbled across it, felt the attack, and bolted to hopeful safety just as I was going past… So I flicked off the remaining ants and gently cut the can off him. He seemed pretty chilled out (thankful?) considering the situation he was in moments earlier, so I snapped a couple of pics… 🙂
3rd pic I was showing him to my hiking mate, telling her this one is a friend and we leave it alone (instincts are strong but if Alpha says we leave it alone, we leave it alone 🙂), when an old beaten up dual cab ute pulled up alongside. Two scruffy lookin’ blokes with a kid in the back just stoppin’ to see if I’m ok… Hey, don’t judge a persons character by how many teeth they do or don’t have… 😆 So I showed the kid the lizard (he wasn’t sure about touching it but what a smile), and the cut can the lizard was stuck in (which the kid frowned at) and said “That’s why we shouldn’t chuck rubbish out the window…”, dunno for sure, but I hope I’ve planted a seed… 🙂
Anyway, the OTHER thing I’ve heard about happened next 😆 I took the lizard off to the side to let him go, bent over with my camera ready to hopefully get a pic before he took off, and he spun around and ran straight up my leg! 😂 Hahaha from there on it was pure guess work 🤣
4th pic, check out the shadow, I’ve got one hand trying to get a pic and the other pulling my shorts tight so he doesn’t “try to hide” 😆 I can feel the strength of the grip in his needle like claws dug into my leg, I really don’t want them gripping anything higher up… 😅😂🤣
Photographs, Geradton-ish, Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
The lizard has been ID has a Black Headed Monitor (Varanus tristis), subspecies Varanus tristis tristis.
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