Reptiles in the Tropics - General Information

Every year, new species of reptiles are described. At last count in Cogger's Reptiles of Australia, 2000 edition, 1050 species of reptiles and frogs had been described. At least 131 of these occur specifically in the Wet Tropics with a least another 20 in the region but not rainforest dependent.

Some of North Queensland's reptiles are well known, invoking strong reactions such as the Taipan, the Estuarine Crocodile and the Death Adder. But the Far North has some other reptilian notables as well, such as Australia's largest snake, the primeval forest dragon and the very popular sea turtles who frolic in another famous World Heritage Area, the Great Barrier Reef.

The local reptiles are a diverse group of animals including lizards without legs, poisonous snakes on land and in the sea, freshwater turtles with long necks, goannas as long as 1.5 metres, the smallest skinks which only an expert could identify, geckos with unusual tail shapes and two types of crocodiles.

The concentration of endemic reptiles is greater in the Wet Tropics than in any other area of Australia. Out of 24 species which are exclusively rainforest inhabitants, 18 of them are found nowhere else. Many of the Wet Tropics skinks and lizards are very closely related to species in New Guinea and Southeast Asia and probably originated there while two of the resident geckos are thought to be Gondwanan in ancestry.