School Sport NT - Mascots

	Mascots
school sport nt > about us > mascots

policies & procedures

clusters

nt exchanges &
championships

interstate exchanges
& championships

sponsorship & funding

return to the main 'about us' page

Mascots
School Sport NT ran a NT Schools competition to design an animal mascot for the 1992 Pacific School Games when we hosted it in Darwin. A young boy from Howard Springs, Tracy Ellis, drew a great frilled lizard . Using the botannical name, Chlamydosaurus kingii, Kingi and Clammy were born. They have now grown up as School Sport NT mascots and will turn 15 years old in January. Cool Teenagers, eh?
Frilled lizards are also called frill-neck lizards or frilled dragons. They live in dry forests and woodland, in the northern parts of Australia. They belong to the family of lizards called 'dragons'. A frilled lizard can be up to 95 centimetres long. Its colour matches the colour of the land and the trees it lives on. The lizard's colour camouflages it. Male frilled lizards are more brightly coloured than females.
	To escape an enemy, a frilled lizard can move very fast on its two hind legs. When it is frightened, the frilled lizard opens its mouth wide which causes it to ruffle out its red and orange, scaly frill. The lizard hisses loudly too and may thrash its tail on the ground. Frilled lizards will bite an enemy with its strong teeth. Frilled lizards are not poisonous or harmful to people. Frilled lizards are usually active during the day, hunting insects, ants and spiders. After mating with a male frilled lizard in September, the female lays up to 23 eggs. The young hatch about 5 months later and are left to look after themselves. Frilled lizards may be an endangered species because the land where they live is being cleared.
They spend ninety per cent of their time up trees, only descending to the ground to feed. A lot of their movements within the trees are to regulate their body temperature: they will bask on the tree trunk in the early morning, and hide in the shade of the canopy most of the rest of the day. Most feeding is done in the early morning or late afternoon.
	They have good eyesight, and use this to locate food. When prey is spotted, the frilled lizard will quickly climb down, run across and grab the food, then hurry back to the trees. The most successful time for frilled lizards to hunt is after a bushfire, probably because the fire has cleared away the undergrowth and enabled the lizards to see prey better. If disturbed, the frilled lizard initially relies on its camouflage. If further threatened it will open its mouth wide and erect the frill, revealing bright orange and red scales. To make this bluff seem more threatening, it may also hiss and jump at its assailant. It will then turn and run on its hind legs for the nearest tree and climb out of reach. It also uses its frill to display to other frilled lizards while in the tree tops. Frilled lizards commonly use bipedal locomotion.
The frilled lizard is the reptile emblem of Australia

School Sport NT	Millner Primary School
PO Box 1992 Casuarina NT 0811	Sabine Road, Millner
Telephone (08) 8948 0025	e-mail: email.ssnt@ntschools.net
Fax: (08) 8948 0257	url: http://www.schoolsportnt.org/

this page was last updated 22 November 2005