Flora and Fauna: Agama Lizard

One of the most common and visible lizards in Tanzania is the Agama Lizard. Combined with their stunning color and large size they are a familiar lizard to both locals and visitors. We have several that live in our banda and some have made themselves extremely comfortable. I'd say there is probably a group of 3-4 that permenetly resides in our banda and I know for a fact that two of them sleep in between our tent flaps.

They're innocuous and actually good for eating the insects, though they do leave pretty big lizard turds laying around. These are easy enough to manage when they harden but it's quite unlucky to make contact with a fresh sample. Still, they don't have a truly putrid smell and are more of an inconvenience than something actually disgusting.

They love to run along our walls and get pretty close to us when we are working. Probably about once a month one of them accidently gets trapped in our tent and we have to catch them and throw them out. One night I heard a rustling above me and thought there was a gigantic spider and I was actually relieved to see it was just an Agama. We let him spend the night before throwing him out the next morning. 

Exiting his house in the flaps of our tent. 

Invading my workspace. 

Above our bed.