A Very Large Lizard!

Dhub

While driving around, exploring the village and farms of Tumayr, we spotted this "dhub" from a distance. A dhub is a lizard that lives in the desert of Saudi Arabia, and they are very fast! They dig holes deep into the ground, and at the first sign of danger, they rush in and hide. It can be a dangerous habit to reach into a hole to catch a dhub, since they often share their home with scorpions! I didn't think there was a chance that I would get more than this one shot of this big guy. We stopped the car about 200 feet away from where he was sunning, and he was off like a shot!
So how is it that we caught him? This guy was so big that he had a hard time getting into his hole fast enough!

This is the biggest dhub I have ever seen! I have seen babies that are the size of my little finger, so that gives an idea how big this guy really is. Doesn't he have the funniest toes? All the better for digging! They can do quite a bit of damage with that spiked tail by swinging it around and hitting with it. Also, their bite causes a world of pain and they won't easily let go, so you have to be careful to hold them firmly from both ends to prevent injury.

If you look at the dhub's left front hand, you will see that his toes are missing. To be this size, he has obviously gone through some skirmishes, but has come out victorious. A dhub is a vegetarian, and is't really a violent lizard at all. His first defense is always to run into his hole, and will only bite or use that tail that looks like some sort of a medieval weapon as a last resort. After taking some pictures and enjoying the chance to get a close up look at this fellow, we let him loose where we found him, and he squeezed into his hole. A week later we were driving through the same area and decided to go take a look, and yes, he was out on his same rock sunning again! Awesome!