Trivia question for Feb-24-2011

Carter’s turn for today’s trivia and he picked another fierce looking character for you.  Let’s see how everyone fares with this guy.

They live in colonies and dig burrows into the silty soil of the grasslands in South Africa.   Their name comes from their habit of sitting at the burrow entrance and facing the sun.  They are insectivores, but occasionally will eat small vertebrates.  They reproduce every other year, and only produce one or two offspring.

The decline in numbers is a result of habitat destruction (conversion of the grassland to farmland) and illegal collecting for the pet trade.

So here are Carter’s questions: For what purpose is their natural habitat being cleared and how do they use their head spins to prevent from being extracted out of their burrows?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to Nonie for being the first with the correct answer.  The spiny critter we featured is the Sungazer Lizard.  The Sungazer is also known as the Giant Spiny-tailed Lizard, Giant Zonure, or Giant Girdled Lizard, which is the largest of its species.

They are loosing their native habitat due to the high demand for corn and sunflower farming.  Sungazers are protected by spiny dorsal scales and large spines run along the back of the head.   The tail is armed by whorls of large spines and is waved at predators that pursue it into a burrow.   If attacked from behind, they jam the spikes from their head and neck region, into the roof of their burrow to prevent being pulled out of their burrow.

Here is more on these prehistoric looking lizards: Sungazers

Thanks for playing along 😉