Cordylus cordylus
Cape girdled lizard | |
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At Mountain Zebra N.P., Eastern Cape | |
Conservation status | |
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Family: | Cordylidae |
Genus: | Cordylus |
Species: | C. cordylus |
Binomial name | |
Cordylus cordylus Linnaeus, 1758 |
Cordylus cordylus, the Cape girdled lizard, is a medium-sized lizard indigenous to the southern Cape region of South Africa, where it inhabits crags, rocky outcrops and mountain summits. They evade predators by wedging themselves firmly in rock cracks.[citation needed]
Description
The Cape girdled lizard has a golden-brown body with spiny, keeled body scales, especially on its tail.[citation needed]
Range
It is indigenous to the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, from Saldanha and Cape Town eastwards as far as Lesotho. [citation needed]
Food
They feed on insects, which are caught by rushing and pouncing.[citation needed]
Habits
They live in large colonies (with social hierarchies) on crags, rocky outcrops and mountain summits. They can often be seen sunbathing on top of prominent rocks. The lizards hide in rocky cracks, but come out in the morning and evening to forage. If threatened, they retreat to their holes and cracks in the rocks, wedge themselves in and lock their bodies there by inflating their lungs. Jammed into the cracks like this, with their thorny tail wrapped protectively over their faces, they are incredibly difficult to prise out.[citation needed]
Reproduction
In the autumn, the females give birth to one or two young, which stay very near the mother for the first year. [citation needed]
References
- ^ Bates, M.F.; Mouton, P.L.F.N. (2018). "Cordylus cordylus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T110159331A115674365. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T110159331A115674365.en. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
Further reading
- Branch, B., 1998. Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa: Ralph Curtis Books Publishing, Sanibel Island, Florida, 399 pp.
- Fitzsimons, V. F., 1943. The Lizards of South Africa: Transvaal Museum Memoir, Pretoria.
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- Black girdled lizard (C. niger)
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- Oelofsen's girdled lizard (C. oelofseni)
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- Ukinga girdled lizard (C. ukingensis)
- Transvaal girdled lizard (C. vittifer)
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- Dwarf cliff lizard (H. nebulosus)
- Jordan's girdled lizard (K. jordani)
- African spiny-tailed lizard (K. polyzonus)
- Campbell's girdled lizard (N. campbelli)
- Lawrence's girdled lizard (N. lawrenci)
- Namaqua girdled lizard (N. namaquensis)
- Peers’s girdled lizard (N. peersi)
- Herero girdled lizard (N. pustulatus)
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- Armadillo girdled lizard (O. cataphractus)
- Attenborough's flat lizard (P. attenboroughi)
- Broadley's flat lizard (P. broadleyi)
- Cape flat lizard (P. capensis)
- Dwarf flat lizard (P. guttatus)
- Emperor flat lizard (P. imperator)
- Common flat lizard (P. intermedius)
- Lebombo flat lizard (P. lebomboensis)
- Spotted flat lizard (P. maculatus)
- Waterberg flat lizard (P. minor)
- Mitchell's flat lizard (P. mitchelli)
- Orange-throated flat lizard (P. monotropis)
- Ocellated flat lizard (P. ocellatus)
- Sekukhune flat lizard (P. orientalis)
- Pungwe flat lizard (P. pungweensis)
- Soutpansberg flat lizard (P. relictus)
- Striped flat lizard (P. torquatus)
- Lang's crag lizard (P. langi)
- Highveld crag lizard (P. melanotus)
- Cape crag lizard (P. microlepidotus)
- Spiny crag lizard (P. spinosus)
- Drakensberg crag lizard (P. subviridis)
- Northern crag lizard (P. transvaalensis)
- Barberton girdled lizard (S. barbertonensis)
- Waterberg girdled lizard (S. breyeri)
- Zoutpansberg girdled lizard (S. depressus)
- Giant girdled lizard (S. giganteus)
- Mozambique girdled lizard (S. mossambicus)
- Regal girdled lizard (S. regius)
- Swazi dragon lizard (S. swazicus)
- Van Dam's girdled lizard (S. vandami)
- Warren's girdled lizard (S. warreni)
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