Look who I found! - Algerian sand racer
It is actually not hard to find them around. But it is very hard to shoot them! They like to sit and warm up on stones and sides of the pavements. But as soon as they see some movement they are gone. And they will not come out anytime soon.
Psammodromus algirus
I see them often when I walk around... like a shadow hiding in grasses. I have no idea what made this one sit so still. He came out of the bushes about 1 m away from me and just looked at me. And I looked at him. That lasted about 5 min. Then I decided to go back to the car, grab my camera and try to get that close again to take some photos. I was afraid that he would run away after seeing a giant creature getting closer ti him, but nop. He just stayed there.
It is a Psammodromus algirus also called Algerian psammodromus, Algerian sand racer, or large psammodromus. It is common to Iberian Peninsula and Northern part of Africa. It likes to stay close to shroobs and around wooded area where it will hunt smaller ground insects like ants, grasshoppers and beetles.
The one I saw was about 15 cm in length, but I read that they can reach 32 cm thanks to their very long tail!
I started shooting from a distance. Just in case it would decide to ruin away at least I would have some shots. It was just so unexpected to see him!
Look at those scales! Little dragon wannabe :)
After those I made a sudden move that actually did scare him off and he run away to the nearby bushes.
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
Oo wow great photographs. The sand racer might be a warrior in his last birth lol.
But seriously the pictures are really amazing
Thanks very much :)
Oh my God, when he starts to move, I throw the camera towards him. little dragons scare me. successful shoot! congratulations mu friend
haha its a tiny tiny dragon :D and he is probably even more scared of you... that you might eat him :D
It is very beautiful. At first I thought it was the head of a snake.
It looks like one indeed :)
Pretty little dragons.
I have picked your post for my daily hive voting initiative, Keep it up and Hive On!!
Weee thank you again :)
Wow!!! Amazing find! And great photography, knowing that they are agile and are quick to runaway! 👏 👏 You even have an upclose take, as if posing for you! Hahaha! 😍😂
Thank you for sharing. May you have a beautiful day. 😊
She was supper cooperative! I was surprised myself :)
Wish they weren't so shy.
Have an awesome Sunday :)
Hahaha! 😂 Do you wish that all of them are as cooperative as her? Haha! 😂
Thank you. You too, have a beautiful Sunday. 😉
Hell yea!! :D :D
Hahaha! 😂
Soo cool! It's so hard to get them still!
I think this one was still asleep :p
Cute little guy, do these ones eat other lizards? When I was a kid I caught a bunch of lizards and put them in a jar together, sadly one was an alligator lizard and he ate the other lizards, womp.
I don't think they do. I didn't read about it anyway. But if there is nothing else around... maybe they would hunt some smaller ones.
Once, as a kid, I kept tadpoles in jar and I was surprised to see less and less of them. Only later to find out that if there is not enough food they would eat each other. Not a happy experiment.
Same thing with trying to raise praying mantids lol.
<3 <3 <3 So jelly! Any lizard or gecko I see always runs away before I get a good look. Last year there were a couple yellowish ones on my apartment balcony, but I never got a photo D:
Lovely photos!!
Yeaaa they run fast! I wish I could shoot more of them.
One year I had gecko on my balcony, but he was always hiding... I could just see him moving between the pots. He was cute :)
Boaaa! Foi onde? Cumprimentos qta do conde
Obrigada :)
This one I found near Santiago do cacem.
Sorry, my Portuguese sucks :p
Ohh that's so close to what we have in the bushes n gardens here. My granny use to tel mythological stories abt this guy.
In our local language we call it havrani ( havu - Snake and Rani - queen so havrani is snake queen ) granny says, snake bite is poisonous, but this guys lick on any part of skin is poisonous. Not sure if it's true, but it's scary 😊
And yes it's very hard to photograph. Great work 👍
I wonder how much true is it in. Maybe they do have some healing properties. All those stories originate from some knowledge.
Cool you have them there. They eats insects :)
For some reason, in our area, there have become very few lizards, maybe because of the increased population of pheasants ... I don’t know (
But a few years ago, in the summer it was impossible to take a step, so as not to step on such a charm)
Would be a shame if they all disappeared. Would pheasants eat them?
Hunt the pheasants! :D
I think that they eat ... I see no other explanation!
And hunting is prohibited here (
Get some foxes :)
:)
I liked the fluffy little lizard. :)
Good pictures. :)
Thank you :)