Lizards and snakes

From Charlie: I have been chasing lizards all over Tanzania. I have seen a lot of different kinds. The most exciting one was an red-headed agama (Kelly Wassell took this picture, my Dad's wasn't very good). One day I was chasing a striped skink at a house we were looking at renting. It was sticking its head through the drainholes in an outside wash basin. I picked it up by its chest and I carried it over to Doug. Before he got his camera to take a picture, it squirmed onto my finger and bit me! I let go and it was hanging in mid air from my index finger. I pulled it off and threw it into a bush. My Mom freaked out and wanted me to put a band aid on it. But I was like, no way, it doesn’t hurt at all. A week later I can still see the bite marks.


When we were at Lake Manyara National Park picnic area something interesting happened. Some people came and sat with us. They were from the US. Earlier they had seen a python that fell out of a tree. The grandma was very scared of snakes. At the end of our lunch, the people started yelling, snake! A small one had fallen out of the tree into their area. Everyone else insisted that it was a garter snake so she wouldn’t be so scared. I was thinking, “what do these people know about snakes. Garter snakes are never green. They are always brownish, tanish, and yellowish." I thought it was a Jason’s mamba. So we got our snake field guide and camera to identify it. It was a spotted bushsnake. Grandma ran into their truck.

And that was about it for our non-scary adventures that had to do with cool snakes and lizards.