An umbrella of skin
When it is scared it opens its mouth, and rods of cartilage spread the frill out wide.
The outback
Frilled lizard
Chlamydosaurus kingii
A grey-brown lizard with a big frill of skin round its neck, which it can open like an umbrella.
- Size
- About 80cm long, mostly tail
- Look for it
- September to December, then January to April
- Where
- Dry woodland across northern Australia
Scurries after you with its frill up. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Frilled lizard
Good to know
Six things about the frilled lizard
All bluff
The frill makes it look much bigger. If that does not work, it turns and runs.
Running on two legs
It sprints upright on its back legs, which earned it the nickname bicycle lizard.
A tree lizard
It spends most of its life on tree trunks, and comes down mainly to feed.
Ants and cicadas
It eats insects, and does well after bush fires when they are easy to find.
On a coin
The frilled lizard was on Australia's two cent coin.
The real thing
Photos of the frilled lizard
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look on tree trunks in the wet season, about head height. It keeps to the far side of the trunk and peeps round.
How to help
Cane toads, brought to Australia by people, poison lizards that eat them. Support work to control invasive species.
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