Alexander Dudley
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alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Alexander Dudley
@alexanderdudley.bsky.social
240 followers 230 following 840 posts
Ecologist, fauna surveyor, lover of Planet Earth, my wife and lizards, accidental discoverer of a cure for Bipolar Disorder (See "A Gut Mood Solution" by Prof. Gordon Parker). We are tallest when we stoop to lift others.
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alexanderdudley.bsky.social
So I found this lizard in Mosman, Sydney, and although it is most similar to Calyptotis ruficauda, there are some slight differences, but whether they're outside the error bars is yet to be determined. No Calyptotis are recorded from Sydney.
November 8, 2025 at 5:59 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Some years ago, when Barnaby Joyce was deputy PM of Australia, he was clearly under the weather. This is what was said, compared to how Hansard reported it.
October 22, 2025 at 9:51 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Wildlife surveying has strong parallels to gambling. You can spend hours with little return, and then later when you're pressing the advance button scrolling through camera trap photos, you find something like this Spotted-tailed Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus.
A cat-sized marsupial carnivore, the elusive Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) is now the largest native carnivore in unprotected wild populations on mainland Australia.
October 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Pretty chuffed to have discovered a new species of Peacock Spider in the genus Maratus on a fauna survey in the northern New England area of NSW this week. Photo by ©Jurgen Otto, reproduced with permission. Keep your eyes open. Australia still has many amazing discoveries awaiting.
A tiny spider, about 6mm in length, with a raised flattened abdomen with a blackish Rorshark test pattern surrounded by irridescent blue and flame orange. It has two large front-facing eyes with two smaller on either side, and two smaller eyes on the top side of the head.
October 15, 2025 at 10:50 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
For an ecologist working in the field who wants to look after their gut health, a cookie with 53 plants and four mushrooms is going to go a long way towards keeping my gut microbes happy. I married well.
September 4, 2025 at 7:22 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Got in just in time then.
September 3, 2025 at 3:20 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
It's #WorldLizardDay! So here is Eric, my resident adult male Cunninghams Skink (Egernia cunninghami) who has been living in my yard for 18 years.
August 14, 2025 at 12:09 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
I loved this one, being interested in all things natural history and also being built like a stick insect and knowing those who described it. Well done. Enjoy a Velvet Worm.
August 6, 2025 at 9:38 AM
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These spiders are seriously badass. They hunt Jack-jumper ants which can deliver a sting that can make a human being react with colorful language and acrobatics.
A colorful spider with orange legs on the quartz pebbles of a Jack-jumper ant nest. A colorful spider with a Jack-jumper ant it has just envenomated. The venom's effect on the ant was almost instantaneous, but the spider took no chances and carried the ant off the mound.
July 10, 2025 at 6:56 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Centipede mothers love their children too.
A small centipede with an orange body wraps protectively around her many pale, white offspring beneath a log in Cradle Valley, Tasmania.
July 7, 2025 at 1:20 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Do you know why Pied Oystercatchers have such strong opinions? Because they're shore birds.
They certainly would hold strong opinions about vehicle traffic on beaches, unrestrained dogs and climate change, because they only nest on shorelines. They need beaches far more than we do. #OzNature
A Pied Oystercatcher, a black and white bird with a bright red bill and a red ring around its eye walks in shallow water looking for invertebrates around the tide line. These birds lay well-camouflaged eggs in a shallow scrape above the high tide mark on the beach, where they are easily crushed by cars, sniffed out by free-roaming dogs or trampled by people. The prey they feed on is also killed by vehicular traffic on the beach. In Australia these birds are regarded as vulnerable.
March 28, 2025 at 6:52 AM
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The Dromedary is the largest feral animal in Australia's desert regions. It can be terrifying if it looms onto the highway in front of your car at night or if you are pursued by a gurgling sex-crazed bull camel. I have experienced both scenarios. Best viewed from a distance. #WildOz
Two one-humped camels in good condition in the deserts of western Queensland on the South Australian Border. These large herbivores are superbly adapted to a life in the desert and unfortunately, are selective browsers targeting ecologically and culturally important species like the Quandong tree. Bull camels can become extremely aggressive during the breeding season when they turn into psychotic, gurgling salivating demons with a grudge.
March 27, 2025 at 4:31 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Way back in 1991 I was working as a zoologist for CSIRO CAZR and I photographed this Katydid in the West Macdonnell Ranges, NT using its ovipositor to lay its eggs in a crevice. I have not seen this since. #OzInverts #OzNature #Inverts
A female green Katydid bends her abdomen forwards and presses her dagger-like ovipositor into a tiny crevice on a rock outcrop in central Australia.
March 24, 2025 at 2:04 AM
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Every morning my wife and I sit drinking our coffee and watch the family of Cunninghams Skinks (Eric, Glenda and the 14 kids spanning three years of their offspring) that live wild in our yard catching the sun. They bring us enough joy to make us feel like millionaires. #Lizards #Herps #OzNature
Cunninghams Skinks (Egernia cunninghamii) at 14 months (left) and 26 months (right) basking on a stick placed in a rockery for the purpose. The younger lizard is getting the warmth from the sun and stealing the warmth from its older sibling, who moved off in a huff shortly after this photo was taken. A juvenile Cunninghams Skink (Egernia cunninghamii), one of seven born on 25 January, basking beside a sibling born the previous year. Eric, an 18 year old Cunningham's Skink (Egernia cunninghamii), who has fathered 17 young with his wife Glenda. I'd probably look like this if I had so many kids.
March 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
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Velvet Worms are awesome
Carnivorous and cool
slow-moving killer plushy toys
which shoot out sticky drool.
They stick their victims to the ground
and then the knives come out
for something that's so small and cute
they really pack a clout!
#TeamVelvetWorm
A velvet worm (Onychophoran) moves slowly across a log on little stubby legs, waving its soft antennae over its head as it hunts for slower prey. These invertebrates diverged from Arthropods many hundreds of millions of years ago and are the only major lineage of invertebrates that have no aquatic members. Some Velvet worms have a social hierarchy and care for their offspring.
March 22, 2025 at 12:17 AM
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We have a resident population of Cunninghams Skinks (Egernia cunninghami) living around the property and as it gets cooler they often include the house in their explorations before overwintering under the hot water heater. This lounge lizard is about 13 months old. #Lizards #Herps #OzNature
An immature Cunninghams Skink (Egernia cunninghami) on a cushion looks at the photographer with a mix of suspicion ("Are you going to eat me"?) and hope ("Are you going to feed me?"). These long-lived lizards live in family groups and are one of the few reptiles known to show parental care. I have personally observed this lizard's mother attack a venomous Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) that was easily big enough to eat her, and drive it out of the yard.
March 15, 2025 at 12:24 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
I think that everyone should know that although I am interested in a very wide range of topics, I really, really like lizards. Especially lizards in the wild, such as this male Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii) photographed in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. #Herpetology #OzNature
A male eastern water dragon, a blue grey lizard with a black streak fringed with yellow running backwards behind its eye to above its shoulder, and black patches over its spine, an a red flush on its chest and lower throat. The lizards eyes are bright and fully alert as it basks on a moss-covered rock.
March 14, 2025 at 10:25 AM
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Normally solitary Yellow-spotted Monitors (Varanus panoptes) occasionally live in communal burrows such as the one on the right. Unfortunately over much of the Top End of Australia these burrows have been taken over by Cane Toads (Rhinella marina) which are deadly to these magnificent monitors.
A number of burrows in a sandy mound indicate what some describe as a "Goanna compound" where a number of adult Yellow-spotted Monitors Varanus panoptes shelter. In this landscape these large lizards are one of the top-order predators and have been a significant food source for indigenous Australians for tens of thousands of years. Although their numbers crashed following the arrival of the feral cane toads (Rhinella marina) the species appears to be recovering. An adult Yellow-spotted Monitor (Varanus panoptes) turning its throat into a set of bellows and producing an alarming deep, low hiss.
March 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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This is lightning strikes in Tasmania yesterday. Lightning strikes used to be quite unusual in Tasmania a few decades ago. As warmer waters have moved down the east coast of Australia as a result of climate change, they have got more common. This is catastrophic for Gondwanan rainforests.
A map of Tasmania showing the nearly 19000 lightning strikes that hit the ground occurring on the 12th of March 2025. Nearly the whole of central Tasmania is covered by lightning icons.
March 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM
alexanderdudley.bsky.social
Have you ever wondered what the spine on the back end of a cricket is for? This female Raspy Cricket from the North-west slopes of NSW demonstrates how she lays her eggs in the ground through the ovipositor. #Insects #OzInverts #Nature #Cricket.
March 10, 2025 at 4:07 AM
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Back in the early 1990s before OH&S departments got so overzealous they killed common sense I worked as a zoologist in the Australian deserts. This is before the days of GPS and I had to use my bush skills and not die while walking miles by myself. #OzNature #Deserts #Zoology
Loves Creek Station, Northern Territory, with Mulga woodlands, open mixed grasslands and eroded rocky ranges, all in beautiful pastels. Loves Creek Station from the top of a hill, with eroded rocky ranges decorated with scattered trees, and open plains punctuated by rocky hills stretching to the far horizon.
March 9, 2025 at 10:48 PM
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In Tasmania there is a lizard that everyone thinks is named after a tree that was, in fact, named after a boat. The She-oak Skink (Cyclodomorphus casuarinae) is a usually secretive live-bearing species that occupies dense vegetation across Tasmania. #Herpetology #Reptiles #OzNature
The She-oak Skink gets its common name from its Latin specific name Cyclodomorphus casuarinae. However, the "ae" epiphet on the specific name is feminine, and there were no French women called Casuarina at the time they were described or collected from Bruny Island (during the Baudin expedition). However, after a bit of digging I discovered that the French had purchased a smaller boat called the Casuarina when they were in Sydney. This is one of two Australian lizards (that I know of) that were named after boats, the other being Nactus cheverti, named after a US vessel. She-oak Skinks can reach a total of about 30 cm and give birth to live young. When threatened, they often hold their front limbs along the sides of their bodies and rapidly flick their tongues, which makes them look very snake-like. That's not a bad idea as long as the creature harassing you isn't a Tasmanian with a shovel. These lizards are quite harmless and one of my favourites.
March 9, 2025 at 7:49 AM
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I remember this very snake..
March 9, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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How awesome are Border Thick-tailed Geckos (Uvidicolus sphyrurs)? These Carphodactylid geckos (found during a fauna survey conducted under permit) live where there is heavy woody debris, deep crevices in generally long-unburnt habitats. #Reptiles #Geckos #OzNature
A brownish gecko with rough skin and a brown mottled pattern looks at the photographer. The gecko has a carrot-shaped tail that had broad black and white bands. A brownish gecko with rough skin and a brown mottled pattern looks at the photographer. The gecko has a carrot-shaped tail that had broad black and white bands.
March 3, 2025 at 4:23 AM