This video talks about a rare species of animals being collected for the Pet Trade. Nothing is more attractive to a certain group of people than a rare and endangered animal kept for display in their homes.
Freaks and Creeps: Sungazer Lizard
Premieres Tuesday, July 17 10P et Freaks and Creeps Blog Site
A Hole in the Sun
Sungazer lizards get their name from their habit of sitting with their nose up pointed at the sky. It looks like they're staring at the sun! Like all reptiles, sungazers are cold-blooded. To get warm in the morning, they sit and let the sun's rays heat them up. But no one really knows why they always sit in that heads-up position.
Sungazers dig burrows for homes. There may be up to 40 sungazers living in one spot, but each has its own hole. The lizards spend the day catching the sun's rays and snatching insects that pass by. Sometimes, a sungazer hunts for food a few yards away from its hole, but never goes very far. The burrow is the lizard's safe spot.
The spiney scales covering a sungazer's body are good protection from most predators. After all, who would want to get a mouthful of spikes? Believe it or not, jackals, badgers and birds of prey hunt these lizards. If they can get ahold of a sungazer, they have ways of getting around the sharp parts. But getting ahold of a sungazer lizard isn't so easy. When it senses danger, the lizard dashes into its burrow and shakes its spikey tail as a warning to leave it alone. If a predator grabs the lizard's tail to pull it out of the hole, the lizard puffs its body up with air so that the sharp pointy scales dig into the side of the burrow. The harder the predator pulls, the tighter the sungazer becomes stuck in the tunnel!
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