Wildlife Journalist: Thorny Devil

A whole body of Thorny Devil in desert.

Good morning all! Today is a great day with cloudy day and windy maybe heheh...

So, today i want to share one of my favorite animal, guess what? Thorny Devil! haha...
If you are OZ, you will know what is this, because this the one of animal live in Australia especially desert and scrubland area.
Let's start!

The thorny devil is an Australian lizard, also known as the mountain devil, this is the sole species of genus Moloch. The Thorny Devil grow up to 20cm in length and it can live up to 20 years.

Description

An intimidating array of spikes cover the entire upper side of the body of the Thorny dragon.These Thorny scales also help to defend it from predators. camouflage and deception may also be used to evade predator.The lizard unusual gait involves freezing and rocking as it moves about slowly in search of food, water, and mates.

Diet

The Thorny devil eats only ants, mainly one particular kind of ant, eating around 1000-3000 ants in a single meal. However, it eats the ants one at a time, flicking its sticky tongue in and out quickly.It drinks water in a most unusual way. When either rain or dew lands on the Thorny devil's back, the water flows along thousand of grooves between the spines that lead to the corners of its mouth so that it can drink.

Predators

Like many animal, Thorny devil have a predator like bustards and goanas. However Thorny devil have an air predator like a falcon.

Self Defence

Thorny devil is not aggresive. It has quite a few ways of hiding or defending itself from threatened:

Change color to match it surrounding.
Protect its head and trick a predator by hiding its head between its front legs, leaving its false head showing.
If a predator try to flip it onto its back, the Thorny devil uses its spike and curved tail to anchor itself onto the ground.
It can imitate a leaf flicked by a breeze.
It can puff itself up to look larger.

Thorny Devil Top Facts

Between the scales of Thorny Devil there are narrow channels which use capillary action to draw droplets of dew or rain towards its mouth.
Feeding almost entirely on small black ants, the thorny devil can consume up to 5000 ants in a single meal.
The scientific name of the thorny devil, Molloch Horridus, is said to derived from John Milton's poem, Paradise Lost.
The thorny devil can change color to provide better camouflage depending on its surrounding.

Conservation Status

Thorny Devil has not yet been classified on the IUCN Red list. It means, thorny devil have a good population in wildlife. We still have to protect this little reptile from extinction. We never know what happen in the future, but we still can prevent an extnction from now!