A good bluey article on the abc

[RoryBreaker]

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-24/busting-myths-about-the-blue-tongued-lizard/10492492

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Here's a question... How big can blueys actually get, really?? There's an old guy at work who's from Dalby, Queensland and he has lived on his rural property out there for 30 odd years now and we often get to talking about wildlife and reptiles in particular every so often and he swears no word of a lie that he has resident blueys living in his back yard that's are a good metre long. I'm just like no way man, it can't be a bluey that big and he's no dummy, pretty switched on when it comes to all manner of wildlife and native birds and plants etc, a real old genuine bushy and he's telling me this bluey is pushing a metre.
I've never seen a BTS much bigger than this and I've got several living in my back yard here in Toowoomba.

Here's 2 specimens I trapped to keep my Jack Russell Terriers from harming them...



For a size reference... They're in those white mice rack tubs...which have an internal length of 48cm so the skinks themselves would be less than 60cm easy. I figured that was just as big as these creatures got??



1m long blueys... surely old mate is mistaken??

 

[RoryBreaker]

Eipper's old Northern called "Horse" is/was more than 80cm. Some of the relocators in the Nt reckon they have seen one metre long northerns. A bit like the Unicorn (a 60cm long Australian Bass) , im yet to see a picture of one of these beasties next to a measuring device.

Nt northerns no doubt grow to the largest lengths though.

As for easterns, some kicking around on the downs will be in the high 60's, but i can not believe in any being a metre long.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Kyle Hamilton]

Like most reptiles blue tongues grow to a standard adult length for the species then grow very slow ,35 year olds in captivity look pretty average . Fewer really old ones around these days with the population as with pythons ,the biggest bluetonge i ever saw was massive with an in complete tail and a dozen or so little grow coming from two bigger offshoots .The property owner was 80 and told me that old stumpy had been their when he moved in as a young man ,it was found dead in an adjacent gutter from unknown causes.

 

[cris]

Maybe some tiger snakes took a bus to Dalby?


The biggest ones I have seen would probably be around half a meter, that said many places where they would once be safe for a decades in a relatively safe environment are now mostly gone.

 

[dragonlover1]

The biggest Eastern Bluey we had would have been around 60cm nose to tail. Rex was a monster but he drowned in the turtle pond when young , would have loved to see him mature. We have a couple of Northerns, we shall have to see if they get that big.