Dune Dwellers

While I was on the coast (in the dune zone) looking for Lithops, I decided to take a tour in the dunes with a local guide and see some of the very specialized little animals that live there... They are all endemic to just this coastal dune region of Namibia...

 

The little gecko is about 15cm long and is active at night. We dug it out of its burrow (which it makes anew each morning) had a close look, took some pictures and then put it back in a shaded spot and watched it re-dig a home in about 2 minutes flat :)   Amazing little webbed feet it has for sand walking. It doesn't like the sun so I only got the one picture in the light.

 

 

Another of those Chameleons... This one was bigger than the last. We fed it some home grown mealy worms which it cot spot immediately from 5m away when they were put on the sand near-by.

 

Then there was the little legless Sand Skink which we found by following its track and then digging up from about 15cm deep... Its amazingly glassy smooth all over and the head is very pointy.

Then there is the shovel nosed sand diving lizard... Only about 10-15cm long and very quick over the sand. The head has a glassy smooth shield of skin just for ducking under the sand if a predator should appear... These little guys are active during the day and they do that "diagonal foot balancing" to keep their feet out of the very hot sand as much as possible.

Small but tenacious when cornered.

We were right out in the dunes here... nothing but sand (unless you know where, when, and how to look.

Warning, Spiders and snakes below this point







This is the White dancing spider named so because it appears to dance when cornered. It will also tuck into a ball and roll down a sand dune if it thinks it can get away from attack that way... Its quite poisonous and quite large (this was about 10cm across)... And its got quite the set of fangs on it too!

You cant see it but there is an Adder there between the two boulders (about 30cm long)

Once we scared it out it moved like a sidewinder snake from the American desert regions

And then it shimmied its self down into the sand and became invisible... even the head disappeared just after this photo

And here are the eyes just waiting for some juicy gecko or lizard to come by!

By the middle of the day the wind in the dunes had really picked up so we headed back to town. All the animals were treated very carefully and very professionally and were immediately released back into their habitat with a suitable "restart" to their destroyed temporary homes... I was quite impressed with the tour experience... Well worth the money ($US 65 or so)