The Finger Dragon

Professor Ewan with his first exhibit of the year.

Couldn't believe this lizard was out and about. Have had a miserable, rainy, freezing cold winter this year, but yesterday the sun came out for an hour and it was slightly warm - about 12C. Found this little beauty sunning himself on a wall. Professor Ewan - so named because he's always lecturing me on various topics - was beside himself as we weren't expecting anything to be awake for a good few weeks yet!

Loved the pattern of his scales and beautiful yellow eye.

We spent 15 minutes taking photographs and having a good look at him. Usually, it's very hard to catch these because in the summer they're like little streaks of lightning. Most of the time all you see is the end of a tail disappearing into the long grass. On the rare occasions we've caught one, we've had to hold on tight otherwise they're off! However, because of the cool weather and an empty stomach after 4 months hibernation this one was very easy to catch and handle. Great for taking photos, but a pity we didn't have the video with us.

We put him him back on the wall and he disappeared into the leaves.

We didn't have much success in keeping these last summer. We caught several, but they refused to eat and would rapidly lose weight. Sadly, we lost two, and then decided just to keep any more we caught  for a few days before returning them to the place we found them. This summer we're planning to do some research into the best environment for them and make a larger and hopefully more suitable home for the lizards and any other wildlife we catch.

Here is a video of the first lizard we kept back when Professor Ewan was around 5 or 6. At that time, he'd just got his first camera and I started taking videos of the animals we caught and various mini safari's we took together. The six or seven I made became a series on Youtube called 'The Family Pet'. These can be seen by clicking on the link.