As Wednesday was St David’s Day and yesterday was World Book Day, this week’s World Wildlife Wednesday has shuffled over into Friday. And this week we have the male of the lizard species I blogged about last Wednesday, the Agama.

It must have been lizard mating season when I visited Tanzania in 2014 as these Agamas are usually mottled shades of brown and grey, like the females I showed last week. But when the mating season rolls around, they need to impress and attract the ladies, so their skin changes to vibrant attractive hues of red and blue. No wonder they’re sometimes known as ‘Rainbow lizards’ or (love this!) ‘Spiderman lizards’. Apparently, the males gather themselves small harems of six, sometime more females and will fight, often quite aggressively, to defend their harem from incursions by other males.

As well as much of sub-Saharan Africa, Agamas can also be found in the Indian sub-continent and even in some areas of southern Europe. They’re sun-lovers but don’t like it too hot, shuffling off to rocky crevices when the temperatures hit the high thirties Celsius (around 100° Fahrenheit). Though they are most partial to insects, they will also devour fruit, seeds and grasses, and are even known to pinch the eggs of other reptiles.