{"id":54308,"date":"2018-05-25T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/?p=54308"},"modified":"2023-06-24T17:08:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T09:08:41","slug":"changeable-lizard-egg-laying-and-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/2018\/05\/25\/changeable-lizard-egg-laying-and-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Changeable Lizard: Egg laying and after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tinny G Unciano<\/strong> was sweeping the garden of fallen leaves when she came across a female Changeable Lizard (Calotes versicolor<\/em>) laying eggs. The lizard apparently had dug a small hole in the ground and laid about half a dozen white eggs (below). By the time I managed to assemble my videocam, the lizard had completed laying her eggs. She was lying on the ground with her hindlimbs across the hole, the exact position she was in when she was laying her eggs. She remaining still for about 3-4 minutes. <\/p>\n

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Changeable Lizard and her eggs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, turning around, she directed her head downwards and began compacting the soil that was earlier scraped over the eggs. This she did by thrusting here head into the soil so that her snout did the compacting. Following this, she started scraping the surrounding soil, first with the claws of one forelimb, then with those of the other. After a short rest, she used her snout to compact the soil again. Turning around clockwise and anti-clockwise, she repeated scraping the soil, resting, compacting the soil and resting again for a total of 13 cycles until the hole was covered. The surface was meticulously flattened with her claws with compacting when necessary until there was no evidence that a hole had previously been dug (see video below).<\/p>\n