Hidden Jewels (skinks)

When the question comes about reptiles, we mostly don’t know the answer only because they are the most neglected one. People care about birds, people care about mammals but people don’t care about reptiles except the fact that people fear snakes. And among reptiles the most neglected ones will be the skinks. Leave aside the common people, even the experts don’t have much information about them.

Of these greatly neglected, less studied and very secretive animals, two species are found at my home town Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. The first one is the most common skink of India, Brahminy Skink or Keeled Grass Skink (Mabuya carinata). It has a robust bronze brown body with 2 lateral yellow stripes and a chocolate brown band on top. The legs are well developed. It grows upto a length of 290mm of which 170 mm is tail.

This skink is equally at home in rural as well as urban environment. It frequently enters houses in search of prey. It mainly feeds upon crickets, caterpillars, beetles, earth worms etc. Though skinks are mainly ground dwelling creature, it is a very good climber also. I have seen it climb 6’-8’ vertical cemented wall with ease. And it is so good at living in urban space that i found 2 specimens in our 2nd floor rooftop garden.

The second one is the Snake Skink or Supple Skink (Lygosoma punctatus). Very few have seen it partly because of its small size and partly because of its semi-fossorial living. Semi- fossorial means it spends its time both over and under the surface. For its underground living habit several changes have occurred on its body. The body is elongated and have a snake like appearance. Legs are very small compared to the body. This gives us a hint how snakes have lost their legs. And the lower eyelid has a transparent window. This enables it to see even when the eyelids are closed which is often the case in underground movements, to protect the eye from accidental scratching.

Other than these, its general coloration is brown above and yellowish white below. It can reach a length of 15cm of which half is its tail. Tail is rather thick and gradually tapers to a point. As it spends most of time under leaf litter, it is hard to see. One interesting fact is that, the colour of the tail of juvenile Supple Skink is bright red. It looses colour as it ages.

Living Dragon (water monitor)

Yesterday afternoon when i returned home, i heard my aunt talking about something like, “......let it starve.” I asked about it and came to know that a juvenile “gosap” (monitor lizard) had fallen into a cemented pit 2 days ago and could not climb up the pit till now. I enquired about the location and went straight there. The lizard was still alive but a little less energetic. I know only 2days starvation wont be a problem for reptiles but if direct sunlight hit the lizard for full day, that could be fatal. Lizards cant regulate their body heat internally and long exposure of direct sunlight will increase their body temperature to deadly level. I picked up the lizard and released it outside.

That incident made me think about the general behaviour of people towards monitor lizards. And i found it to be more promising than the snakes. Most of the people think that each and every snake is harmful and should be killed at first sight but for monitor lizards, it is somewhat neutral. People consider them harmful because monitor lizards can cause a great damage in poultry farms. Monitor Other than that people actually don’t care about them too much. Sometimes people even encourage the existence of monitor lizards in their locality ‘cause they believe that if monitor lizards stay in the locality, the locality would be free of venomous snakes as snake consist a part of their diet. A few tribal people consume monitor lizards as source of protein. But the particular trait of human which devastated the population of monitor lizards and pushed them on the brink of extinction is their liking of monitor lizards skin for leather trade. Fortunately they are now under legal protection. That helped them revive their population.

In our locality two types of monitor lizards are found. The bigger one is Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) and the relatively smaller one is Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis). Being bigger the water monitor dominates the environment and are numerous than the Bengal Monitor. Water Monitor can grow upto a length of 2.5mtrs. very few of us actually know that this is the largest lizard on India and third largest lizard of the world. These lizards are semi-aquatic in nature. They are associated with water bodies and water channels. They roam in the water ways and relatively less frequented areas on the bank of the water bodies like backyard gardens, old ruins etc even inside the city. Generally they avoid people. They are diurnal in nature and come out to hunt mainly at dawn and noon when the human activity is less. Insects, fish, crab, turtle, birds, eggs, snakes and even small mammals consist their diet. They even feed on carrions which helps to keep the waterways clean. They are very adept swimmer. They even do mating inside water while swimming like crocodiles. This behaviour can be seen in the months of monsoon. In the localities where human interaction with the Water Monitor is more and people are more tolerant towards them, they even break inside the house to steal chicken and ducks. They can walk around fearlessly because they don’t have any predator when they are full grown but they have much reason to worry when they are juvenile. Wild cats, mongoose, hawks, egrets etc all prey on them.

As human encroachment on nature is increasing, the wildlife is facing a greater challenge. But a few species have succeeded to reap a bounty of this bad situation. They have adapted themselves to live with human in the modified environment. Water monitor is one of them. As people have built new irrigation channels and drainage systems, they have colonised these new areas and increased their spread in inland areas. This actually helped the species not only to survive but to thrive in these changing conditions.

Down memory lane (Fan Throated Lizard)

This time when I was browsing though the pages of sanctuary Asia magazines Dec ’10 issue, one particular photo caught my eye. Two fan throated lizards have jumped up into the air while they were fighting. Its not that it was the only stunning photo, there were several but this one refreshed the memory of my last year’s Orissa tour.

Last year in the month of May, I with two friends had gone to Rusikullya, Orissa to see the Olive Ridley turtles emerging from the eggs. I wrote about that in May, ’10 posting in detail. The area was filled with Garden Lizard (Calotes versicular). They seem to be everywhere. And because of the white sand, their overall coloration was more whitish. After clicking their photos the whole morning, I quite got bored. Then we went to a well for bathing. There were plenty of thorny scrubs around. Suddenly a movement in the scrubs caught my eye. I hoped to find a snake in there. But when I carefully inspected, it was no less rewarding. I found a small lizard of brown coloration in there. I had never seen it before. So I tried to catch it for close inspection but it was too quick for me. After several attempts I finally gave up and hoped of spotting it again sometime later.

In the next morning we went out to see the mass hatching of Olive Ridely. But to reach the spot we had to hike for several kilometers along the coast line. During that hike, in the Casurina plantation I found the lizard again. It was running on the sandy ground. But when it was entering a scrub, because of its markings on the back, it was being very hard to spot. I once again tried and failed to catch one. Then the boy from the local NGO came to my rescue. It caught one lizard for me. Close inspection reveled the skinny flap on its throat. It surely indentified it as a Fan Throated Lizard (Sitana ponticeriana).

Natural history

Fan Throated Lizard is a small and handsome lizard. It is found in two different size forms. In the Mumbai area, the size is about 70-80mm and in the rest of the area the size is 40-50mm. Fan Throated Lizard is found in all regions except heavy rainfall area and desert. In India it is not found east of Ganga River. It is a ground dwelling, diurnal lizard. Mainly feeds on ants and small insects. The overall coloration is brown and underside is white. The dark brown patches on its back help it to blend in with ground level vegetation. The most interesting part of it is the fan like appendage on its throat. In the mating season this fan on the breeding males become blue anteriorly, blue-black center and red posteriorly. Male lizards stand on the hind legs and open and close its fan. Female lizards watch this display hiding in a bush. Males also fight to defend their territory and females. Mating commences from April-May and egg laying occurs in July.

surprized visitor part II

To hell with forest dept, to hell with govt. employees. When people are doing their bit to conserve wildlife, those who are appointed by govt to do the job are behaving irresponsibly.

This incident is the sequel of the previous incident of resqueing a chameleon. In that incident I found a chameleon to be carried by a man, talked with him and made him agree to surrender it to the forest dept. So he handed it over to the forest officials. Here the previous story ends and the new one begins.

Near about 1 week after that incident I again got a call from Khokonda, my photo-journalist friend. He told me yet another chameleon was found and this time just near the forest dept office itself. I was surprised, 2 chameleon siting in 2 weeks in a place where chameleons are not even found!! So I thought to investigate the matter.

Me and some other people went to that place with Khokonda. We met a young boy named Anik. He leaded us to his house and told us to wait. Then within a few minutes, he returned with a rusty bird cage. In that cage was a chameleon and it was exactly the same one. I didnt understand how after handling it over to the forest officials, did it end up in this tiny rusty cage!! But when I looked at the chameleon carefully that question was pushed aside by the health condition of it. It had a wound at the tip of its lower jaw. I suppose that happened when it tried to escape the rusty cage. So I tried to take it out of the cage. That boy Anik had not any idea what to do with it but he too cared about this beautiful lizard. So he understood the situation and helped us a lot. With everubody's help, I was able to bring the chameleon out of the cage. Then we borrowed a old shoebox from Anik, put the lizard inside and rushed it to a vet. But to our badluck no vet was available as it was sunday. So finally I bought it home.

The next day Khokonda told me the story behind. After we left the chameleon at forest office, nobody bothered about it. And after several days, they actually released it in their own backyard. I dont know how they have acted so irresponsibly!!! That area is very much crowded and there are many residential houses. it wont be long before it catches somebody's attention and again become captive and that was just what happned. Did they even think once before doing such thing?

When I brought it home, I out a great responsibility upon myself. In captivity, I myself would be responsible for its well being. But for the time being i told myself that it would be a nice opportunity to observe its behaviour. So first I sheltered it in an old aquarium. Thought it will like it but it didnt. It was a very intelligent animal. The corner of the covering that I lifted to put in some grasshoppers, it came to that point as soon as I stepped back and tried to push it up. But for now I had no bigger option. The next morning I built a bigger encloser by putting two plant pots inside a fishing net. It was nice and airy as I found out chameleons prefer circulated air. I put a little medicine on the wound and put it inside. Now after settlement I found a behavioural change. already before I grabbed it a few times, for maximum threatning purpose it opened its mouth and posed but no sound. Now when I tried to grab it, it made loud hiss just like a viper! Well, as it could not venture out to catch some insects, so I had to do the job. Next 2-3 days I was running behind grass hoppers and dragon flies just like when I was a kid. But whenever i offered it some insect, it was quick to grab it and eay it. All day it spent on top of the plants going from brunch to brunch but as soon as it was 5'o clock, it would find a nice thick brunch at mid level and would go to sleep.

After a few days the wound dried and I could see the restlessness increasing in it. It had already scouted every single squre inch of the encloser to find a spot to escape. So I took it out and released it in a suitable place far from locality without any delay. Afterall it has the same right to live free just like us.

Surprised Visitor (Indian Chameleon)

After the rescue of the Russell's viper I gained some popularity among a few boys. So on this fine evening, we were chatting among ourselves in our regular hangout place. Suddenly a crowed gathered around a car in the middle of the street. I thought that some kind of accident could have happen. But some boys from inside the crowed was yelling by my name to check it out. So I got up and positioned myself in the center of the crowed. And I didn't belief what I saw.

A chameleon was sitting on the bumper of a car. I was stunned. I never saw one outside a zoo and seeing one on the streets of Tamluk like this would be the last thing to come to my mind. In a moment by the roar of the crowed I came into reality. The crowed became hysteric. they were touching, pocking, gesturing, doing all sorts of thing to the chameleon. I cant blame them knowing the fact that it was the first time for them to see such an spectacular and peculiar species. But they were really threatening it. So I grabbed it and picked it up but it was tied with a rope. I tried to loosen the rope but could not. And the driver was shouting,"hey! put it down, put it down." Then he started the engine and of they go. But before their escaping, I did one important thing. I recognized the driver.


He was from our neighborhood. So the first thing in the next morning was to go to his house and have a talk. I didn't even waited for toilet. I caught him before he went out for his days work. they had put the chameleon on a tree but the rope was still there. he told me that he found it on the road near Ramnagar. the chameleon was walking on the road and only because it jumped seeing the light of the car he saw it. Now he is clueless what to do with it. One thing was assuring that he don't want to keep the chameleon as a pet. So I suggested him to return it to the Forest Dept. I even told him about the rareness of these fine creature and also about the Wildlife Protection Act. of India by which he could have been punished for upto 7 years of imprisonment. So after all thing discussion he agreed to go to the Forest Dept. But again he said he didnt know anybody there. So I asked him to come with me as I have some folks there. We made a timing and I returned home.


Due to some incidents i was late. So when i reached him, he told me he already returned it to forest dept. So I called my friend from Bartaman newspaper, he is a photojournalist of that paper, and we headed for the office. There we found our little fella in a cage. The officials were very much helpful. So we took out the chameleon, put it on a brunch and started our photo session. We even managed to feed the chameleon 10-12 grasshoppers. It was essential 'cause I was not sure how long will it be there. We measured it to be of 13" in length. My photographer friend was really fascinated by it. So after a long 1-1/2 hours photo session we left the place.


Natural History

Chameleons are one of the most bizzare lizards of the world. They are mainly found from East Africa abd Madagascar but one species occurs in India i.e. Indian Chameleon. Their distribution is through out India except the heavy rain fall region but due to their territorial and solitary nature Indian Chameleons are uncommon to rare in their habitat.

Every aspect of this fantastic lizard is fascinating in some ways or other. If we start from the head, they have a cone shaped on their head which looks like a helmet. They have a tongue which can be extended as long as its body length and the tip of the tongue is sticky and club shaped by which they capture prey. They have huge eyes but the eyelid has only a small opening for the pupil. the eyes are also capable to move independently. The chameleons have brilliant eye sight due to its binocular vision. As chameleons are adapted to live on trees, their foot has become specialized to clamp the brunch which become awkward when it comes to walking on the ground. Chameleons have most remarkable body colour variation power among the lizards. They can change colour almost instantly. Body colour variation happens in response to light, heat, background and emotional state. Even the tail of a chameleon is remarkable. Its tail is prehensile. When needed it can work as an extra limb. chameleons actually uses its tail in support with hind legs to reach out and extend its striking distance.

Overall it has such a comic appearance and its behavior compliments its look so fantastically that it became my second favorite lizard of all.

At birth Indian Chameleon is 50mm long. The longest recorded adult is 375mm. Mating occurs in the months of August. Egg laying occurs in October. Incubation period varies from 82 days to 9 months.