Fig 4 - uploaded by Drew E Dittmer
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The smaller, less commonly seen Black-headed Goanna (Varanus tristis) is not typically eaten by Anangu as it is believed to cause bad dreams. This lizard is widely distributed in arid Australia, where it is most abundant in woodlands and rock outcrops.
Source publication
This is a travelogue of three field biologist's experience doing herpetological field work at Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park.
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Citations
... One of the lizards with the highest observed T p in this study, Ctenotus inornata, was also observed actively foraging for termites in rain puddles at the south-base of Uluṟu in 2013. The ambient temperature during this observation was 21 C° (Dittmer et al. 2015), nearly 13 degrees less than the T p reported in this study. This observation, combined with the fact that many lizard species choose to be active at lower body temperatures suggests that some lizards may be thermal generalists. ...
Uluṟu Kata-Tjuṯa National Park (UKTNP) is host to the two inselbergs, Uluṟu and Kata-Tjuṯa. The latter is an iconic image of outback Australia and hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the rock every year. While the landscape of UKTNP is largely characterized as spinifex desert, the base of Uluṟu is notably unique in that it provides a shady refuge from the intense heat of the outback Australia. An invasive grass species, buffel grass, has also become established at the base of Uluṟu. To date relatively little field work has assessed the faunal associations with the unique shady environs at the base of Uluṟu. Furthermore, very few studies have characterized the influence of buffel grass on a diverse vertebrate community. UKTNP hosts one of the richest reptile faunas in arid Australia. Additionally, the base of Uluṟu is an important breeding habitat for three species of arid adapted frogs occurring in UKTNP. The goal of my thesis is to characterize how the microclimatic conditions at the base of Uluṟu differ from conditions further afield and to look at how composition of the reptile and amphibian communities varies with these microclimatic conditions. Additionally, I demonstrate that vegetation communities dominated by buffel grass support a high species richness of reptiles and amphibians.
