Talk:Eastern blue-tongued lizard

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Some Edits

Edited logic of the Tiliqua scincoides scincoides being ovovivaporous as eggs are actually alive. Added improved anatomical directions for appearance. Suggestion to change picture next to appearance section to be a lizard with the stripe as described in paragraph. Added multiple hyperlinks.

Eptlizard (talk) 04:56, 22 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As Pets

Nice article. But the notes around keeping blue tongues as pets is not appropriate as its probably illegal.

Lizards are fully protected in all Australian states. It's against the law to take them from the wild. Blue Tongues could be a grey area, as they are actually not true lizards, but large skinks. In any case, in WA, Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria, it is illegal for normal people to keep Blue-tongued Lizards as pets.

Refer to the ABC news source article: http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/February2000/default.htm

But I wont change the article at the moment - as I had trouble finding official information on them. Gavin (talk) 04:25, 5 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite true - you just can't keep them as pets without a liscence (or take them from the wild to keep as a pet). Noodle snacks (talk) 06:04, 5 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

- Actually outside of Australia (not sure how it is there) it's legal to keep house bred Blue tongues without any special license. I see them sold at stores occasionally and own one myself.--97.102.226.160 (talk) 17:12, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Appearance

I liked this section. I thought it was great that an image of the lizard was placed directly next to the concise description of the lizard. I also thought that this section was sited really well. I do think that perhaps more elaboration on why the unique appearance of this lizard is important for their survival?

I found the syntax of this section to be repetative, short, and choppy. I went through this section and edited some of the syntax and two grammatical errors that I found so that this section could read slightly more smooth for the reader. I believe that the entirety of the article could also benefit from some more descriptive sentences and more sources. Additionally, I think that the physical descriptions that are touched on in this sections could be followed up by a few sections about the Ecology of this lizard (ex. Anti-predatory behaviors, mating behaviors, and/or any unique skills that they have and what they use these skills for).

Length

In the main article on blue tongues, it gives a length of up to 37 cm. In this article on the Eastern variety, the size is given as up to 60 cm. I think that is rather optimistic. What is the verified max size? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xtal42 (talk • contribs) 12:30, 22 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is possible that the maximum length stated as up to 37 cm is the measurement of head and body. I have a skink in my garden that measures 54 cm head to tail. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.175.14.152 (talk) 02:20, 24 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It all depends on how you measure the length. In many lizards, length is measured from snout to vent. Perhaps some measures were snout to tail. Any length measurement should state the exact starting and ending points. Dger (talk) 02:52, 24 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to add information on the Tiliqua scincoides scincoides. Specifically, I added information about nomenclature, appearance, habitat, conservation status, close relatives, diet, reproductive cycle and parental care, lifespan, predators and parasites, protective coloration and behavior, physiology and olfaction, venom, and interactions with humans and livestock. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eliyamak (talk • contribs) 03:26, 7 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Conservation Status

Although this section effectively identified the various dangers that the eastern blue-tongue faces (ex. pests in Australia), I thought that this section did not effectively provide a broad image of this lizard's conservation status and levels of endangerment. Therefore, I did a little bit of research and I added a small paragraph under this section that I beleive discusses the stablitiy of these lizards' populations more effectively

I added the following: "According to a consensus published in 2017 by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Library, the eastern blue-tongued lizard has a wide distribution and it is categorized as “least concern” in terms of endangerment. Regardless of their stable population, these lizards are protected in Australia as a native species. Government regulations like the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 1999 have positively influenced the preservation of the eastern blue-tongued lizard."^[1]

I still think that this section needs more depth. I think that in this section it is important to discuss how the pests (if they have) in Australia affected the conservation status of these lizards? Additionally, what makes the blue-tongue lizard "popular". Are they popular amongst native Australians, popular in numbers, and/or popular to eat? Explain more.

References

^ "Eastern Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status". San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

Edits and Suggestions

Overall, great job! I really enjoyed reading this page, I think the author conveyed the information well. It was well-written and provided information on a wide range of topics. I definitely learned a lot about the species. My favorite section is the "Appearance" section, it was very detailed and the author included a clear close-up photograph to supplement their writing. In the Reproduction section, I think it would've been helpful to understand the terms ovoviviparous and altricial more. The author did touch on what ovoviviparous meant, but I also linked the term to another Wikipedia page so that readers could supplement their understanding. Additionally, I wasn't sure on what altricial meant, so I linked that term too. I think it would be too distracting if the author of the Wikipedia page were to define altricial too.

I noticed that this page had a conservation status section, but did not have it in the main box. So I went ahead and added the conservation status in the box underneath the first picture and linked it to the provided citations. I also saw that there were a lot of sections, but they didn't have any sub-headings. After reading through the article, I created the main heading for "behavior and physiology" and made protective coloration, olfaction, and venom as its subheadings. There were some other minor changes that I made, like spelling mistakes and italicizing the scientific name of the species.

I have a few suggestions for the Wikipedia page. First, "Lifespan" as a section needs to be cited. Additionally, the reference and citations sections at the end could be aggregated and compiled together. I also think the olfaction section could be expanded, I have linked this study on food discrimination using the species' olfaction make-up https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3893115.pdf?casa_token=owmX4u-MlCIAAAAA:aZHhRh8ic9FpsqMjVtgfLnbremKbSrMkc6cBuS_3TJW5i8bAIm89oCzMnoxa44Jf_o-alTzdVsS5ghIDOa-GS9dTFJZJpGMriB7gaLw0WtDPnJ9HyCoZ

Nvytrinh (talk) 04:36, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Article Review and Edits

I just did a look through this article as well and found it very informative and understandable. I wanted to provide a brief record about the specific changes I made to the article during my review.

I have found that it can be very helpful to include links to other pages/articles within an article so the reader can navigate to other articles/topics they may be interested in exploring. As such, I added roughly two dozen links to articles on thermoregulation, different behavioral paradigms of the lizard, locations they reside, etc,... I believe this will contribute to what I see as one of Wikipedia's characteristics, which is its interconnectedness across topics.

I noticed there was information regarding the lifespan of the lizard and it was indicated that there was not a source for this information. I searched around online and was not able to reproduce the specific information in the article, but was able to find another source that discusses the information and modified the entry with a citation.

The final thing I did was add a few subheaders within the different sections of the article to improve the overall organization of the article, though it was really good to begin with!

Thanks! Kellencking (talk) 21:48, 21 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Eastern Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status". San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

[1]