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Queensland is home to an extraordinary diversity of reptiles. This is because it has so many different types of habitat. In the tropical rainforest lives one of Australia's most spectacular dragons, the Boyd's Rainforest Dragon.

 

The arid south-west is home to the deadly Inland Taipan. In the deeply cracked black soil plains of the Mitchell Grass Downs, Collet’s Snake hides from the baking midday sun.

 

In the far north there are even isolated pockets of New Guinean animals, among them the magnificent Green Tree Python, which lives in the Iron and McIlraith Ranges and can be found by day coiled around thick vines and few Queensland homes are without delightful nocturnal geckos.

 

A Field Guide to Reptiles of Queensland covers all of Queensland’s 440 named species, including 135 that occur nowhere else. Colour photographs make for quick identification aided by line drawings, keys distribution maps and descriptions.

 

About the author

 

Steve Wilson has recently co-authored with Gerry Swan the authoritative "A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia". His lifelong love affair with reptiles has taken him to some of Australia's most remote places.

 

An excellent communicator, he has written and illustrated many articles and in 2000 he won Australian Geographic’s Photography of the Year. For 18 years he has worked at the Queensland Museum, educating the public, identifying their specimens and raising awareness about Australia's unique biological heritage and how to conserve it.

 

Table of contents

 

Introduction

How to use this book

Glossary and illustrations

Queensland bioregions

Snake bite

Crocodiles

Sea turtles

Freshwater turtles

Geckos

Flap-footed lizards

Skinks

Dragons

Monitors or goannas

Blind snakes

Pythons

File snakes

Venomous land snakes

Sea snakes

Sea kraits

Appendix

Selected reading

Index