Category Reptiles

Sunwatcher Toadhead Agama Lizard

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The Sunwatcher Toadhead Agama Lizard (Phrynocephalus helioscopus) is a small lizard in the agamid family. It is also known as the Fergana Toadhead Agama. 

The Sunwatcher Toadhead Agama Lizard has a short, wide head, and a short nose. It has rough skin. It has scale fringes around its eyes to keep out the desert sand. It varies in colour from light-beige to grey to dark-brown, with white, black, and red patterns that camouflages it with its environment. It has a light underbelly. It has partially fringed toes to help it walk on sand. 

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Caspian Cobra

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The Caspian Cobra (Naja oxiana) is a medium-sized venomous snake, and reptile, in the Elapidae family. It is an elapid. It is also called the Central Asian Cobra, the Ladle Snake, the Oxus Snake, or the Russian Snake. 

The Caspian Cobra has an elliptical, hooded head with medium-sized eyes that have round pupils. It is light-brown to chocolate-brown or yellowish. It has several dark bands under its throat. 

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Russian Tortoise

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The Russian Tortoise (Agrionemys horsfieldii) is a small chelonian reptile in the Testudinidae family. It is also known as the Afghan Tortoise, the Central Asian Tortoise, Horsfield’s Tortoise, the Steppe Tortoise, or the Four-Clawed Tortoise.

The Russian Tortoise can be various colours, but it usually has a brown or grey-black top dome-shaped shell, called a carapace. It has faded yellow-beige markings between its scutes (scales). It has a paler bottom shell, called a plastron. Its body is straw-yellow and brown. It has a small head and brown eyes. It has four toes on its thick, stumpy legs. 

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CREATURE FEATURE: Common Leopard Gecko

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The Common Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis Mascularis) is a small ground-dwelling reptilian lizard. 

The Common Leopard Gecko is pale beige with dark-brown markings and spots. Its back is covered with small lumps. It has short legs with short nails on its toes, which are used for gripping objects (it does not have sticky pads on its feet). It has movable eyelids. It has about 100 small teeth. It has a thick, fleshy tail.

It can regenerate its tail if if drops off. This is called caudal autotomy. It regularly sheds its skin (about once a month). This is called moulting. 

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Red-Footed Tortoise

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The Red-Footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius) is a medium-sized land chelonian reptile. 

The Red-Footed Tortoise has a dark-coloured, oval-shaped, high-domed shell, called a carapace. The carapace has a lighter patch in the middle of each scute (scale). The undershell, called the plastron, is pale. It has pale-yellow to dark-red scales on its head and neck, whith males having more coloured scales. It has a small head with large black eyes. Its upper jaw is slightly hooked, and it has 15-20 teeth. It has stumpy, thick, short legs with four claws on its front legs and five claws on its back legs.

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Adder

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The Adder (Vipera berus berus) is a venomous snake. It is also known as the Common European Adder or the Common European Viper.

The Adder has a thick body with keeled (ridged or rough) scales and a large head. Its colour and pattern vary, but it is usually light-coloured with small crossbars or entirely brown with faint or clear dark-brown markings. It usually has a zig-zag pattern. Its eyes are quite large.

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Madagascar Tree Boa

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The Madagascar Tree Boa (Sanzinia madagascariensis) is a non-venomous, colubrid, arboreal reptile in the boa species of snakes. It is a boid (pronounced bow-id). It is also known as the Malagasy Tree Boa.

The Madagascar Tree Boa is greenish, such as olive-green or bright green, depending upon the colour of the rain forest leaves and trees. In dry areas, it can be orange-brown. It has patterned scales of dark markings with whitish inner markings. It has dark eyes. 

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Ladder Snake

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The Ladder Snake (Rhinechis scalaris orZamenis scalaris) is a medium-sized reptile and a colubrid (non-venomous) snake. It is related to the Ratsnake.

The Ladder Snake has yellowish to dark brown scales with two dark brown stripes running down the length of its body from neck to tail. It has a dark stripe at the back of its eye, angling down to its jaw. Its underbelly is pale, such as slivery-grey to whitish. It has a pointed snout (nose). It has dark eyes.

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Radiated Tortoise

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The Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) is a reptile in the Testudinidae family of tortoises. 

The Radiated Tortoise has a high-domed shell, called a carapace. Its shell is brown with yellow radiating lines from the centre of each plate. Each pattern looks like a star or sea shell. It has a blunt head and thick, stumpy feet. Its legs, feet, and head are yellow, except for a patch of black on its head.

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Asp Viper

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The Asp Viper (Vipera aspis aspis) is a venomous snake in the viper family. It is also known as the European Asp. 

The Asp Viper has a long, slim body with a broad, triangular head, and a distinctive neck. It has an upturned snout (nose). Generally, the male is grey with markings, and the female is grey or brown with markings. The markings are dark-brown to blackish bands with a brown line running down its spine. It has a postocular (below the eye) stripe, more visible on the male.

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Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise

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The Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise (Testudo hermanni peloponnesica) is a small to medium-sized land chelonian reptile. It is related to the Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca). 

The Eastern Hermann’s Tortoise has a slightly domed, rounded shell, called a carapace. The carapace is black and yellow with markings, but the colour fades with age, and becomes grey or straw-coloured. Its underbelly is creamy-beige. It has no teeth, but it has a strong, short beak. It has scaly brownish-grey, stumpy legs with five claws. Its back legs are thicker than its front legs. The tip of its tail has a spur (a horny, short spike). 

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