Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

We're done with Madagascar for the while, so let's return to South Africa. The present illustration is one I've made for Ruan Stander for his book about the reptiles of Limpopo Province. It shows a Blue-tailed Sandveld Lizard. The reason I had to create this illustration, is that there are no good photos of this species available for Ruan to use. It is one of South Africa's rarest and most poorly known reptile species.

While I can't tell you much about this species itself, I can tell you a bit about its relationships and about lizards in general. Most people have a very poor appreciation of reptile diversity. When you say 'lizard' they think of a generic small, scaly beastie. The term 'lizard' actually includes a vast number of very different forms. Common names for different kinds of lizards include iguanas, agamas, chameleons, geckoes, skinks, goannas, monitor lizards, basilisks, and Gila monsters. Some lizards like the Galapagos marine iguana swim in the sea; a few inhabit rivers. Many live in tropical rainforests. But they can be found in the driest of deserts also. The smallest species are the pygmy geckoes of the West Indies and the tiny chameleons of Madagascar, which can sit on the first joint of your thumb with no parts sticking out. The largest are the Komodo Dragon, which can exceed 3 m/10' in length. But they're all lizards. In the past, even larger lizards existed, the incredible marine Mosasaurs, some of which exceeded 10 m/33' in length. Lizards also include many legless types, which typically live as burrowers in the soil, though some are adapted to slithering through grasses and shrubs. Strictly speaking, snakes should also be included in the category 'lizard' if we're speaking of biological classification. They're simply the descendants of certain ancient lizards that long ago lost their limbs. It's likely that some lizards like the monitor lizards are actually closer to snakes than they are to certain other lizards.

Today's lizard, the Blue-tailed Sandveld Lizard, Nucras caesicaudata, belongs to the family Lacertidae, the typical lizards. In shape, it's exactly what you would expect of a lizard. The typical lizard family is widespread in Africa, Europe and Asia. Being typical, they're conservative and unspecialized. They're mostly active by day, reproduce by eggs, and eat insects and other small critters. They occur in typical habitats such as forests, grasslands and deserts. In South Africa, typical lizards are especially associated with sandy or rocky regions. The genus Nucras includes 10 presently-known species in South Africa, and occur mostly in sandy spots in grassland or savannah.

The blue-tailed sandveld lizard is unique among South African sandveld lizards for its intensely blue tail, as well as for the bold yellow-on-black striping. Other members of the genus tend to have spots, blotches and bars as well as stripes, and if their tail is brightly coloured, it's more likely to be red (although some have blue tails as juveniles). But the blue tail occurs in many other South African lizard species, not at all closely related to each other. It can be considered a kind of 'theme' in the coloration of lizards.

At present, this lizard is only known from the extreme north-eastern corner of South Africa. It has been found in a sandveld area in the Kruger National Park. Very rare in South Africa, this kind of sandveld is very widespread in Mozambique and further to the north, where the blue-tailed sandveld lizards occurs more widely. In South Africa it is usually associated with Lala palms, of the genus Hyphaene, and silver cluster-leaf trees, Terminalia sericea, growing on deep, dark sand, in a broader kind of habitat called Mopane Woodland, which is largely dominated by the Mopane tree.

That's basically all we know about it. Certainly it needs more study. It could easily prove to be more widespread inside South Africa. I hope Ruan and some of our other herpetologists will monitor them and maybe find a few more populations. For now, this species is restricted to what is a prime conservation area, and because it also occurs widely outside South Africa, isn't considered endangered. But lizards do need our help, in general, and the best way we can do that, is by ensuring enough pristine habitat remains for them.

Willem

09.10.23 Front Page

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