Frill seekers

Scientists are discovering why our frillneck lizard has one of the animal world’s most dramatic displays.

STORY BY JOHN PICKRELL

IT’S MOSTLY BLUFF and bluster, but a frillneck lizard’s display when it’s disturbed can still be surprisingly intimidating. Open-mouthed, with its dinner plate-sized, bright-red frill erected around its neck like a scaly umbrella, a ‘frilly’ lunges and hisses at biologist Christian Alessandro Perez-Martinez at Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve, on the Adelaide and Mary river floodplains in the Northern Territory. Between lunges, it sways back and forth and makes loud cracking sounds by whipping its tail. Eventually, it turns and scampers off on its hind limbs to scramble up the nearest tree. “This dramatic performance aims to deter predators, or at least momentarily overwhelm them, so that the frillies can escape,” Christian says. “Even though frillies aren’t dangerous to humans, their behaviour definitely makes you think twice.” Christian is a visiting researcher in…

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Australian Geographic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2019

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