Australia might be full of deadly animals, but the truth is that you won’t really see any dangerous animals if you are staying in the more populated areas. The urban wildlife in Australia is very different from what is shown on the nature channels. I’ve seen a few harmless spiders and the occasional mouse running between bushes, but that’s pretty much it. It’s just the normal urban wildlife that can be found pretty much everywhere in the world.

There’s one type of animal that I wasn’t prepared to see in the cities though: The Lizards. They are seriously everywhere. In the parks, flower beds or just casually sunbathing in the street in front of you. There’s geckos, goannas, legless lizards and skinks to just name a few. Some of them are only a few centimeters long and live on small insects. They look exactly the same as the baby lizard that we found in Fiji, just a little bigger. Others are well over 1 meter long, like the Goanna that lived on the roof of our campsite on Fraser Island. There’s so many varieties of lizards and similar reptiles in Australia. The urban lizards are either the small ones or similar as the lizard in the first photo. The bigger ones live outside the cities.

It was freaky at first. I didn’t know how aggressive/dangerous they are, nor could I read their behavior/body language. They are not dangerous, though. There are a few dangerous types of lizards, but they normally stay away from the cities. It doesn’t really matter though, because humans and lizards have learned to co-exist.

They are used to people and people are used to having them around. The urban wildlife is just a part of the city life. The city gives the lizards a relatively safe environment and plenty of food. They are still respectful of humans and not at all aggressive. I actually enjoy having them around now. They don’t do any harm and it’s kind of nice to share the city life with wild animals.