After Australian woman found a set of eggs in her backyard nestled under some sandstone earlier this month, a naturalist has issued a renewed plea to the public to never touch such finds.
Speaking to Yahoo News, the east coast woman said she found the set of eggs in her garden after ripping out her pool. The Queenslander, from Maroochydore in the Sunshine Coast explained that she eventually discovered the eggs to belong to a water dragon, which she said are in abundance at her property.
“These eggs were found under a pool we just took down and we have a lot of water dragons in our back yard,” she told Yahoo. “We are keeping them just in case”. It’s prompted one conservationist to remind the public “to never touch” reptile eggs if they encounter them in the wild as the juveniles inside can be easily “drowned” if handled incorrectly.
Why shouldn’t you ever touch reptile eggs found in the wild?
With typical mating season for reptiles in Australia — including lizards and snakes — being from September to December in line with the warmer weather, officials have told residents around the country to be on alert for, but not to interfere with, our native wildlife.
Park Manager at the Australian Reptile Park Billy Collett said sights like this one are common at this time of year, with reptile mating coinciding with warmer weather in spring and early summer.
Speaking to Yahoo this week, Collett renewed his plea to the public to leave eggs alone should they find them in nature.
“You can’t roll reptile eggs because the motion may cause the developing juvenile to drown inside the egg, so it is important to not touch any eggs you may find,” he told Yahoo.
Lizard eggs in Australia vary significantly depending on the species. Most lizards are oviparous, meaning they lay eggs, though some, such as blue-tongued skinks, are viviparous and give birth to live young. Lizard eggs are typically soft and leathery, allowing them to absorb moisture from the surrounding environment during incubation.
Clutch sizes can vary significantly depending on the species. For example, geckos generally lay one to two eggs per clutch, while larger species like dragons may lay upwards of 20 eggs.
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