Michael Gardner comments:
Late Professor C. Michael Bull once reported on a
Gidgee Skink (Egernia stokesii) that had travelled
into the wild; time is not the only traveller, so we have
to do what we can to minimise the risk of bringing
back more than we bargained for.
about 500km from Camel Hill, near Hawker in South
Australia, to Adelaide. Additionally, Gerrut previously
described an instance of a Pacific House Gecko
(Hemidactylus frenatus) in Taiwan that travelled on
the outside of a car. As amusing as these accounts may
be, such incidents are no trivial matter. Parasites and
See also:
Duffield, G.A., and Bull, C.M. 2002. Egernia stokesii
(Gidgee skink). Opportunistic dispersal. Herpetologi-
cal Review 33 (3): 204-205 (available here: https://
ssarherps.org/herpetological-review-pdfs/).
other pathogens can easily be introduced into new
localities along with these ‘travellers’, and as the
current bobtail flu in Tiliqua rugosa demonstrates, the
potential results can be devastating. Therefore, a
word of caution and plea for those of us who venture
Norval, G., Lu, F.Y., Mao, J.J., and Slater, K. 2012. It is
not inside, it is on top!: An example of vehicular-
rafting by a house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus
Schlegel, 1836). Herpetology Notes 5: 451-452
(available here: http://www.herpetologynotes.seh-
herpetology.org/Volume5_PDFs/
Norval_Herpetology_Notes_Volume5_pages451-
452.pdf).
Verhagen, S. 2016. World’s first lizard nidovirus
found in Aussie bobtails. Australian Geographic,
November 14, 2016 (available here: http://
www.australiangeographic.com.au/
news/2016/11/world%E2%80%99s-first-lizard-
nidovirus-found-in-aussie-bobtails ).
Above left: it was the tell-
tale missing toes that
ultimately solved the
mystery, and ensured that
this travelling beardie
could return home.
Left: once back in the wild,
the lizard immediately
settled down and returned
to being the perfect photo-
graphic model.