Life and Death on the Garden Path

Was walking back from the path gardent the other day and, just as I was about to step over a patch of longer grass, a lizard (skink) about 7cms long dashed into the grass. There was a sudden movement, the lizard disappeared from view, some thrashing about in the grass, then the lizard appeared, belly up, in the jaws of this monster.

It's a Burton's Snake-lizard (Lialis burtonis), and specialises in hunting and eating other lizards. Doesn't have any legs, just a couple of "flaps" on its sides where the hind legs used to be.

See the line above the eyes? It's a "hinge" that allows it to take big mouthfuls of its prey, and to bring the tips of the jaws together when it has something big in its mouth. After grabbing the skink it adjusted its grip until is was putting pressure on the lizard's lungs, and kept this up until it stopped struggling (i.e. dead). Then it quickly flipped it around with two bites, till the head was in its jaws and proceeded to swallow it head-first. Took only about 3-4 minutes to swallow the whole thing.