Sand Goanna
S18, Front Foot
Sand Goanna
Nest Site
Animals
Plants
Info
| Sand Goanna S18, Front Foot | | Sand Goanna Nest Site | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Reptiles (Reptilia) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Scaled Reptiles (Squamata) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Goanna (Varanidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Sand Goanna (Varanus gouldii)| This Photo: | 🔍S18, Under Back Foot🔎 | Thank you Ralph Foster, Max Tibby, Ernst Weiher & Richard D Reams for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere We were able to measure S18 as we photographed along a fence, and photographed a rule along the fence and were able to deduce it was ~290mm SVL; ~700mm tip to tail. This is normal adult size. More colourful when younger, turning more grey as they age. Sometimes when walking around Ellura we'll hear a thumping near by, turn and see the back of one lifting dust as it disappears - no chance of a photograph Recently (Summer 2020/21) we have had a "resident" around the campsite. It's young, ~400mm long (SVL-not including the tail), and seems quite placid. Happy to sit there (but forever watching) as we move about; got some close up shots. She's labelled S7. We saw a pair mating, 9th Nov 2021 (S8 & S9); S9 had the tip of his tail missing and an injured eye. S18 is shedding it's skin. Notice the last photo of a covered up nest. Friends were over and noticed a burrow out the back of the house. Estimated to be about 150mm across, and round, it was quite large, way too large for a normal goanna hidy hole. Too small for a wombat, so we considered rabbits (we've only ever seen one here). We started to get some trail cammeras set up, but before we acted the burrow was covered over. This we didn't understand, but doing some research revealed it's probably a female sand goanna making a nest to lay her eggs. A few days later we saw a goanna nearby (5m away) scurry away when we accidentally disturbed it. Unfortunately we missed taking a photo of the open burrow, to get measurements and perspective.
| |||||||||||