Lizards! with Photos and Amusing Anecdotes

Hello everybody! Jeff here to bring you this installment of Animal Planet - Malaysian Style. This post is dedicated to the reptilians I encounter during my day to day routine.
The creature I encounter most often is the Common Butterfly Lizard. At work, these guys rule the complex. I'd see about a dozen a day. When they fight, the lizard will run on two legs (on the same side) while flaring out his chest and neck-sack. Every now and then, I will notice a large male trying to get frisky with an unsuspecting female. The resultant action would appear like fighting to the untrained eye, but if you pay enough attention you will see the difference. This one instance, a lizard had another lizard's head completely in its mouth. I couldn't tell if he was trying to fight, mate, or eat the poor chap. I scared the big guy off, potentially saving the life of the smaller butterfly lizard. Do I consider myself a hero? I'm just an average man, doing his job everyday. But to answer the question, yes. Yes I do.In the morning, you will find these guys patrolling for bugs in the grass. It is always exciting to see one dart and attacking an aloof butterfly as it hovers above the ground. If these guys were around in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, I have a feeling the Szalinski kids and the bratty neighbors wouldn't have lasted long. The Common Butterfly Lizard is a shy creature, but I was still able to take some nice photos. They burrow in the sand, which gives them a sort of prarie dog look when they pop-up their heads.

Next on the list is one of the largest lizards I have seen in the wild, the Malayan Water Monitor. This guy is huge (photo from our trip to Pulau Kapas). He is in the same family as the Komodo Dragon, but he is non-toxic. I'll normally spot this species as roadkill on the way to work. Every now and then you'll see a live monitor crossing the road. One morning as I left the elevator at the hotel, I walked over the grating covering the water drain. Splash splash splash! I look under my feet, and this lizard about 6 feet long head-to-tail is struggling to get away. It was pretty cool (as long as they don't figure out how to come up through the toilet!). On our recent getaway to Pulau Kapas, as Mia and I walked to the beach behind the spa, we noticed a monster monitor lizard. This guy was massive! He waddled lizard-style into an adjacent cave, as we must have startled him. As he entered the cave (pictured above), about a hundred bats started flying out over our heads. It was a pretty amazing site! Too bad we didn't have our camera or camcorder handy!

The next specimen is a common site for many of our readers, the Gecko. For the past two months, we have shared the Awana Resort with these creatures. Trying to identify the species, we are leaning towards the Flat-Tailed Gecko with the Spiny-Tailed Gecko and Four Clawed Gecko a possibility. In the early morning and evenings, you cannot miss the geckos as they distinctly scuttle away on the wall. Not used to having little lizards leisurely dwelling on the wall, my first instinct tells me its a giant insect or spider! However, after a while you get used to their movement and it is no longer startling. One of my coworkers showed me a cool trick for these guys. Apparently, these geckos go nuts for laser pointers. They think the red spot is a nice juicy bug! It's a full day of enjoyment sitting in your room and controlling the poor little gecko as he runs around chasing the laser trail. On a recent assignment in tropical Southeast Asia, one of my coworkers would use this trick as an icebreaker to help meet some local ladies. All you have to do is get the gecko to following your laser, and then run the laser right up some unsuspecting person's leg. I am not sure how many friends he made, but I can guarantee it was entertaining. Unfortunately, Mia and I do not own a powerful enough laser pointer to replicate this experiment.

The last creature I have encountered out here is the Yellow Striped Tree Skink (please don't snicker at his name, it's not his fault he 'skinks' ... um ... ok, that was dumb). So as I was leaving work for my normal lunch at the McDonalds, I notice this lizard creature on the ground. This was not the normal butterfly lizard as detailed above. I took a good look at him, until he skittled into the drain. The guard at the security gate wondered what I was looking at. He thought it was the 'sand lizard' (local name for the Common Butterfly Lizard), but I gave him the description and he had never seen that species before. Now curious, I looked online and discovered it was the Yellow Striped Tree Skink, which is rarely encountered in the wild as it is a very shy species. So now I got THAT going for me!