Lizards Fighting and Hunting. (White's Skink) (Video and Photo)

mostly.nature (59)in #nature • 7 years ago (edited)

Below are three amazing videos showing White's Skink (Liopholis whitii) hunting prey and fighting in defense of territory. I don't say 'amazing' in respect to my videography but in regard to the awesome display of nature that occurs within our own backyards.

_{( All photos, videos, and text on this blog are by @mostly.nature )}

First up, here is a photo as the videos do not work well as thumbnails on Steemit :-)

And now for the videos...

#1.Lizard Ambushes Beetle
The White's Skink is generally an ambush hunter. The one in this video is quite a young and small lizard. As I was watching, it made several attempts to catch passing prey. It lunged at a large fly which got away. It leapt upwards at a passing bee. A piece of fluffy material blown by the wind was caught, but the lizard soon realised it was not food. (you can see this fluffy object in the video) Next a beetle (a weevil) came by and this time I had the camera set up. The beetle seems to have had a previous injury. I have no idea what the story is. It looked to me like it had been in a spiders web at some point. The skink soon noticed the passing beetle and you can see it creep out from it's tunnel and then charge at the beetle, bowling it over. It gets quite graphic after that. I take no pleasure at seeing the beetle being eaten but at the same time I am in awe at the amazing world of wildlife that exists in our own backyards. Most people would not have even spotted this lizard let alone this encounter with the beetle. So, find a quiet spot, sit still, be patient, and you never know what amazing things you might see in your own backyard.

#2. Lizards at War - White's Skink, Territorial Behaviour
The next video shows these lizards displaying territorial behaviour. An old battle scarred specimen known as Stumpy (no tail) seems to be the lizard king. Some lizards are chased away while in other cases it seems more about establishing the pecking order. For example the young lizard seen in the video thumbnail below only moved about a metre away and has since crossed paths with stumpy without any altercations.

#3. Lizard Catches and Eats a Slater
In this third video we see another example of the White's Skink ambushing it's prey. In this case it is a slater (also known as a Woodlouse or Rolly Polly)