For any non-Aussie reading this, I’d like to confuse & inform you that we affectionately call this lizard a ‘Bluey’.
They’re pretty iconic and different species of Bluey live in many parts of Australia. This article is from South Australia but the general information applies to all blueys. I used to have one in my backyard when I lived in Sydney. It got used to seeing me walking around and was happy just to relax on a rock. Where I live now I’ve got bearded dragons and I’ll do a post on them sometime soon.
As a non-Strayan, I’m a bit disappointed. I was expecting the article to be about how the dangerous beast is going to kill you. I mean, everybody knows that all animals in Australia try to kill you, right?
I actually haven’t nearly trodden on one of Victoria’s insanely lethal snakes for well over a year now.
The topic is blue-tongue lizards.
As for snakes, I’ve lived next to bushland for decades in Sydney & Qld and apart from pythons (which are beautiful, harmless to humans and gently make their way going where they’re going and don’t worry about me (and vice versa) I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I’ve seen any or felt threatened by the others I’ve seen. They get away in any case because they rightly know we are the dangerous and lethal ones (easily proven). Curiously, someone who visited my place who is scared of snakes did find one. Do we attract what we fear? Who knows? The snake of course did no harm or even got defensive and just got away from him.
But what about the drop bears?
We have specially-designed baskets that clip on to people’s heads when they go into drop bear territory. They sometimes also come in handy in magpie swooping season.
Always happy to disappoint, er, surprise folks about our fab wldlife!
Boop their snoot ofc
Only if you want a bluey bite!
A-HAH! So they ARE dangerous monsters who will kill you in imaginably horrible ways!
Edit: yes, imaginably, I said what I said. ಠ◡ಠ
Nah, just an ouch!
:3
Hmm…there’s a cartoon called Bluey. Tis an Aussie nickname eh.
Hmm… now that you’ve asked… 😆
In the case of these chubby lizards there’s good reason because they have a pretty bright blue tongue but in Australia blue has different meanings depending on the context.
There’s a tradition of calling red-haired men Bluey or Blue.
Someone who is ‘true blue’ is someone who is genuine and honest, the mythical ‘Aussie’.
If you’re ‘having a blue’ with someone it means you’re having a fight or an argument.
And there are more uses of ‘blue’ but the above are the most Aussie slang ones.
Ah I can see you’ve played bluey redey!
Nope, I haven’t got a cluey about your redey bluey!
Off-topic but we also would call Bingo (from the kiddo cartoon) “Bluey” because she’s red, and we’d call Bluey “Red” because she’s blue, because we like to be confusing.
Also, South Aussie here, had one in my house the other day and moved it into a bucket and took them back outside and under a bush. Always get them in our garden at some point or another.
To make matters more baffling we have blue heeler cattle herding dogs (which is the breed that cartoon Bluey and her family are), and we also call hard-working rural people blue heelers and have called an Aussie police drama "Blue Heelers’
My introduction to a bluey (ty the tasmanian tiger)
Pretty impressive!
