What is an animal like a small girdle? Where dwells and what eats? What kind of lifestyle do such reptiles lead? Can a small girdle be kept at home? What is the cost of such pets? All this will be discussed in our publication.
Appearance
The Lesser Belt Tail (cordylus cataphractus) is a small reptile. The body length of adults can reach a little more than 20 centimeters. The lizard has a brownish tint with various tints. The yellowish belly contains black spots characteristic of the species.
The small girdle tail has an elongated head and a massive jaw. The animal has short but strong enough limbs. A long, fairly elastic tail is covered with spikes. Similar outgrowths are also found on the back, neck and extremities of the creature. The keratinized plates are concentrated on the body of the lizard with transverse regular belts.
Among the small girdles, a phenomenon such as sexual dimorphism is observed. In other words, males in these reptiles always have larger sizes than females.
Habitat
Lesser Belt-Tail is a species of lizard that prefers to live in extremely arid regions of the planet. Most often, such reptiles are found in the desert regions of South Africa. Occasionally, representatives of the species can be seen in the interior of the country when they wander into stony wastelands and arid steppes in search of prey.
Lifestyle
Belttail is a daytime lizard that exhibits increased activity during daylight hours. In places where other living things suffer from extremely high ambient temperatures, lack of food and water, such reptiles feel great. Representatives of the species settle in crevices of rock, all kinds of minks under large boulders.
Small girdle tails live in small groups. The head of such communities is the dominant male, who is responsible for protecting relatives and controlling occupied territories. The rest of the group consists of immature male lizards, as well as females.
Food
All kinds of insects make up the basis of the diet of the small belt-tail. With the onset of the rainy season, which is observed in South Africa in the spring, reptiles gladly eat termites, which crawl out of the ground en masse. The rest of the time, such lizards feed on small spiders, bugs, worms, millipedes. Sometimes the cauda-tails eat small scorpions. In the driest periods, when there is a shortage of prey, representatives of the species prefer to hibernate for a while, spending the previously accumulated reserves of body fat.
Breeding
The mating season in small girdles is usually observed from the middle of winter to the beginning of spring. At this time, males almost completely refuse to search for food, fighting with relatives for the right to mate with females.
Lesser belt-tails are viviparous lizards. Their offspring appears only once a year. Females bear cubs for 4-6 months. Then individuals appear on the light, which are separated from the external environment by only a small elastic shell. At a time, usually no more than a pair of cubs is born. The body size of the babies is about 5-6 centimeters. Despite their miniature nature, such individuals in a few days are able to lead an independent life, earning food along with adult relatives.
Natural enemies
In the natural environment, small girdles have many enemies. First of all, we are talking about predatory mammals and birds. Naturally, not without a man. Due to the economic activities of people, in particular the development of new territories, the number of representatives of the species is rapidly declining. Poaching is also affecting the extinction of such lizards.
To protect themselves from being eaten by large predators, small girdles use an interesting strategy. Having noticed the danger, such reptiles turn the body into a ring, biting their own tail with their jaw. Thus, the predator simply does not have the ability to expand the lizard to gain access to the soft, unprotected spiky stomach.
Lesser Belt Tail: Price
How much is such an unusual reptile? The price for an adult is an average of several thousand euros, which in terms of domestic currency can reach 120-150 thousand rubles. It is natural that not every animal lover will decide to pay such a tidy sum for a lizard, no matter how original it may be.
Acquiring a girdle is not an easy task. Representatives of the species are protected by South African law. Here, these unique reptiles are listed in the national Red Book. The capture of lizards is strictly punishable by fines and imprisonment. However, poachers still find loopholes for removing the girdles from their natural habitat.
It is worth noting that the price of a reptile will largely depend on the gender of the individual. After all, this factor is extremely important for people who plan to engage in the cultivation of lizards for sale.
Pet content
To contain representatives of the species at home, it is necessary to have a fairly spacious terrarium. The volume of such a container should be at least 100 liters. In the middle, you need to create several shelters for the lizards. The latter can be built from flat boulders, which should be laid so that a kind of mink is formed. The lack of shelters made of stones leads to emotional stress in reptiles, which often causes their death.
When keeping such reptiles in captivity, they should be provided with access to water. Fluid must be offered to lizards in low, flat dishes. Sand should be used as a substrate. In the terrarium there should be no small stones with which the animal can choke. In turn, large boulders need to be heated with an ultraviolet lamp. It is desirable that the ambient temperature does not exceed an indicator of 35 ° C.
In the small girdles, health problems are often observed. Most often, injuries that adults get in the course of mating activity lead to trouble. Healing the wounds on the body of a lizard is quite simple. It is enough to periodically wipe the damaged area with an antibacterial agent.
