Critters in our firewood

Little critter was probably hibernating in there, probably thought summer had set in rather suddenly. Good advice re firewood is not to burn hollow logs, as they provide shelter for all sorts of critters. Even though we try to follow that advice its not foolproof as small animals will also hide under bark and in cracks. I recall a tiny gecko saved from the flames a few years ago after it wriggled out from a crack in the wood. I would have felt bad if i had cooked it - and even having rescued it there is no guarantee that it didnt subsequently die of shock.

Cheers,

Val.

What a gorgeous little skink. Glad he was ok. Yes agree with Val and John re hollow logs.
Amanda

These wee critters obviously hang on pretty tight to their bunk as we had the same experience about 10 years ago. Dead branch was dropped out of tree and placed on fire, got moved a few times before the little chap jumped out and got himself liberated.

Hi

There are several species of spiny-tailed skinks, which all look similar. This one is most probably Egernia depressa (southern pygmy spiny-tailed skink) based on the fact its from somewhere in the GVD. It is not a threatened species (good), but very interesting none-the-less.

Cheers
Greg.

Greg is correct. If you click on the photo I've identified it as such.

Well as fate would have it - here is a (sub) species of spiny-tailed skink that is threatened - Egernia stokesii badia (Western Spiny-tailed Skink). Listed as Endangered on the federal list and as Vulnerable in WA.

Found the little bugger in the middle of the road in the north central wheat belt (WA) yesterday. When I tried to grab him/her it ran into my wheel rim - took a bit of time to extract it but all good in the end - Took him a few hundred metres back into the bush to live another day.



Cheers
Greg

That ones a tad bigger than the one we found Greg. Good save.

Cheers

Dunc