This is our letterbox. It's built into a brick retaining wall along the driveway. There's a door on this side to retrieve the mail, and a slot on the other side for the mail to be put in.
And this is who lives in there! A blue-tongue lizard, about 25cm (10 inches) long, spends much of his time under a piece of polystyrene. He climbs in and out of the box through the letter slot. (We lifted the concrete top off the letterbox and removed the polystyrene so we could photograph him.)
The postman doesn't know he's there, and I won't collect the mail!
However ....
..... the grandchildren have no such qualms.
(l to r. Zoe, Marcel, Richard, Shelly, Shay)
Shay takes her turn, with Marcel on the alert for mishaps.
13 comments:
What an amazing looking creature and your grand children are brave. Would this animal bite?
Sara from farmingfriends
Sara - they don't normally bite, preferring to run away, but may possibly bite if threatened.
What the postman doesn't know won't hurt him but omigosh, little does he know who's sharing your mail! lol xox
Amazing how wild animals find good places to live.
They help eat the snails, slugs and caterpillars that attack your favourite plants. Wish I had one in my garden..
cheers from Canada
How wonderful! Are they always plump or is "she' nesting? My grandchildren have that genetic fascination for everything creeping crawling, too. I'm thrilled!
We often have geckos or green frogs in the letter box, but I've never seen a blue-tongued lizard! I didn't even consider that they were agile climbers.
They are beautiful creatures, members of the skink family of lizards. Aussie wildlife groups often use them as petting creatures in wildlife displays.
With our drought we have one yougster, who crawls through the floor boards into the bathroom of our settlers cottage after water, 'We think'.
Our kids have also adopted this one. Though we have had to rescue it from the bathtub a few times...
OH NO!!! Alice I almost fainted when I read the post...I really dont like any critters like these - they are ok out there in the bush/wild but NOT in my letter box...we get the odd one in summer, and i always double check the box before putting my hand in to get the mail..now I will be triple checking...lol!
OMG, what a beautiful lizard. You should feel privileged that he has chosen your letterbox to live in.
I wonder how he enjoys being conked on the head by the mail each day LOL ... hopefully there are no heavy parcels.
Have a great weekend.
Take care, Meow
That's quite a petting zoo you have there Alice...slaters, baby rozellas and now a blue-tongue lizard! Anything else in your menagerie? It's a cute lizard, but I wouldn't reach in for the mail either. Poor unassuming postman :) I hope Lizzie behaves herself! (Or himself, as the case may be).
What fun for the grandkids...and the grownups too :)
It's raining here!! I'm trying to push it your way.
Our leaves are looking spectacular after all....wish you were here to see them. It's glorious!!
I really like Lizards, Bluetongues in particular!
We used to have them here every year, but they dont seem to come now. Perhaps because of the dogs.
Amazing! And beautiful. Your grandkids are very brave to handle this little creature. (They are beautiful children and you should be so proud.)
I'm too ashamed to tell of my first confrontation with a blue tongued lizard when I first got to Australia. Glad the grandchildren are enjoying the experience.
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