Blue saw-tailed lizard (right specimen)

Blue saw-tailed lizard (right-hand specimen

We warmly congratulate Stephan Wirwalski on this sponsorship, which he won as 2nd prize in our 2021 photo competition.

This small rainforest lizard is related to our native lizards, but has a unique ability: it can flatten its body extremely and form a concave "air channel" on its belly, which enables it to glide or glide jump over 10 metres from one jungle giant to the next. At this distance, the loss of height is also a few metres, but this is not a problem on high jungle trees. Movable scales on the sides of the tail (name: saw tail!) even allow directional control while gliding. Together with a very close relative (Holaspis guentheri), H. laevis inhabits the rainforests from West to East Africa. Because they live high up in the treetops, they are very rarely seen.