Tag Archives: reptile

Emerald Tree Skink

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Emerald Tree Skink in Mindanao, ZooKeys 624, (Rafe Brown / CC BY)

My wife and I were hiking through the jungle adjacent to Sakahang Lilok when our little baby Sophia decided to take a nap. To make her as comfortable as possible I found a shady spot with a good view of the massive trees above, and laid down for her to sleep.

looking for herps with my baby in rizal tanay phillippines

For the first 45 minutes, I didn’t see anything to note. With the pleasant sounds of the waterfall and birds around me, I slowly scanned the branches of the trees with my eyes. Sometimes I just rested and enjoyed being in nature. It was a really calm, pleasant way to sit in the forest.

Then I saw it. An Emerald Tree Skink, making its way around a branch about 20 meters above the ground, inspecting the airplants for bugs to eat.

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Brahminy Blind Snake

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Brahminy Blind Snake wrapped around my finger in Manila

When we think about snakes, many people think big and scary. But some snakes are very, very little and not the least bit frightening at all.

Brahminy Blind Snake Indotyphlops braminus kolkata india
Brahminy Blind Snake in Kolkata

The Brahminy Blind Snake looks more like a worm than a snake. It is only a few centimeters long and has a head so narrow it might be hard to tell which end is which! But look close, and you’ll see the little scales and the tiny eyes and mouth that let you know that it’s a snake you’re looking at.

Brahminy Blind Snake Indotyphlops braminus manila philippines
Brahminy Blind Snake in Bangkok, Thailand

It is thought that those little eyes can only tell the difference between light and dark. The Brahminy Blind Snake doesn’t need to see because it spends almost all of its life underground, burrowing through the soil looking for ant and termite nests so it can eat the eggs and larvae inside.

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Green Crested Lizard

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Green Crested Lizard - Bronchocela cristatella laguna philippines near manila
Male Green Crested Lizard on branch at night at the Rizal ReCreation Center

One of the neatest lizards at Lilok Farm is one of the most difficult to find. Way up in the treetops, crawling around branches with a body as green as the leaves, is the Green Crested Lizard.

The beautiful color of this lizard is what we call “camouflage”. Camouflage is any coloration that makes it more difficult for the animal to be seen – in this case, by blending into its forest environment.

These lizards are active during the day, but their home high in the trees and the well-camouflaged green body make them so difficult to find in the daytime. Instead, I tend to see them at night, when they come down a little lower to sleep and their bodies light up in the beam of the flashlight.

  • Rizal Re-creation Center
  • Rizal Re-creation Center
  • Male Green Crested Lizard at the Rizal Re-creation Center

One neat thing about Green Crested Lizards is that despite their name, they’re not always green. When stressed or threatened, they will change color to a dark brown!

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Reddish Rat Snake

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Coelognathus erythrurus manillensis Philippines Rat Snake Reddish Rat Snake
Reddish Rat Snake (Tony Gerard)

The Reddish Rat Snake (also known as the Philippine Rat Snake) is one of the friendly serpents that hunts for rats in the farms of Tanay. Of course it eats rats – that’s why it’s called a rat snake!

Rat snakes hunt by smell, using their tongue to pick up scents out of the air and off the ground. They can sense the trail that a rat has used and follow the trail back to the rat’s home. Or they will taste the air to smell a rat nest nest and then follow the scent to its dinner. They can also hunt by sight, moving through the underbrush and paying careful attention to small movements. No matter the method, the Reddish Rat Snake is very good at finding rodents.

The rat snake does not have deadly venom. Instead it kills its prey by wrapping its body around it and then squeezing the animal until its heart stops. It can only do this to very small animals, so there’s no reason to be afraid of them.

Philippine Rat Snake Coelognathus erythrurus manillensis eating a rat at Liloc Farm Tanay Rizal near Manila
Reddish Rat Snake wrapped around a rat at Lilok Farm
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Tokay Gecko (Tuko!)

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tokay gecko gekko lilok tanay rizal philippines
Tokay Gecko hiding in the dorm room

The Tuko is not the most visible resident of Tanay, though it certainly is loud! During the day they like to hide where you can’t see them, and even at night they avoid the lights.

But no matter where you are, around the clock you can hear their “TU-KO TU-KO” calls.

When you’re not looking, the Tuko is busy eating up cockroach, beetle, mice, and any other pests that live in and around the Sakahang Lilok buildings. They will eat just about anything that fits into their mouth – so don’t grab one, or it might chomp down on your finger next!

Tokay Geckos seen at Lilok Farm at night

  • tokay gecko gekko lilok tanay rizal philippines
    Tokay in farmhouse
  • tokay gecko gekko lilok tanay rizal philippines
    Tokay in pigsty
  • tokay gecko gekko lilok tanay rizal philippines
    Tokay in composting toilet
  • tokay gecko gekko lilok tanay rizal philippines
    Tokay in pigsty
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