A free field guide to the lizards of Borneo — 86 species, each with photographs, scientific names, Malay and Indonesian names, and notes on habitat and where they are found. Nothing to buy and nothing to sign up for.
What Borneo's lizard list looks like
Four groups make up most of the list. The agamids include the Draco flying lizards — ten of them here — which glide between trunks on ribs extended into wings and are far commoner than most visitors realise once you know to look at the trunk rather than the canopy. The geckos run from the tokay shouting from a lodge roof to the forest geckos on stream boulders. Skinks account for the largest single group, and the monitors for the largest animals: the water monitor is the one you will meet, along riverbanks and around any settlement with rubbish.
The species people come specifically for is the Bornean earless monitor, a semi-aquatic, nocturnal, near-mythical animal endemic to Borneo that was known from almost nothing for decades and is now under serious pressure from the illegal pet trade.
Finding them
Lizards are the one reptile group that rewards daylight. Flying lizards are found by watching sunlit trunks along forest edges and roadsides; a glide is unmistakable once you have seen one. Skinks work the leaf litter on trail edges through the morning. Geckos need a torch after dark, on trunks, boulders and buildings. Almost any lowland site works — Bako, Danum Valley, Sepilok and the Kinabatangan all produce.
Using this instead of a book
Printed reptile guides to Borneo are good but expensive and increasingly out of date on taxonomy after recent splits. This is free, current and photographic. There is an honest comparison of the two on the field guide page. See also snakes and turtles and crocodiles.
All 86 species
Each card has two colour-coded toggles:
turns lime green — adds it to your trip planner
turns blue — marks it as seen in my sightings
