The life story of a Painted-Lip Lizard

I don’t remember much of my beginning, only the warmth of the soil above me and the instinct to claw my way into the light. My mother was long gone by the time I hatched… that’s just how we Painted-Lip Lizards do things. She laid her eggs in a sandy patch, then left us to the mercy of sun, rain, and chance. Tough love, you might say, but it works. A couple of months later, out I came, blinking into the world with no guidance except instinct. As a hatchling, blending in was everything. My brown, mottled scales made me look like a fallen leaf, and that disguise kept me safe from predators. As I grew, my tail grew twice as long as my head and torso, making it a perfect balancing pole for acrobatic dashes between branches. Most striking of all was the colour shift on my lips… a painted red line that stretched across my mouth, as if I’d stolen a touch of lipstick. When startled, I can drain that crimson into a sharp white streak. It’s theatre, really, but survival is as much about drama as it is about speed.

Now, as an adult, my days are measured in sunlight. I am diurnal, which means I am active during the day. Moths, beetles, spiders, bees… they’re my staples, snapped up with precision and a sticky flick of my tongue. It may look like a casual life, but every meal I eat also maintains the balance in the ecosystem, preventing insects from running riot in fields and gardens. Without my kin, you’d definitely notice the difference! Of course, my story isn’t all smooth climbing. Forests shrink, trees fall, and the green spaces we rely on grow patchier each year. For now, conservationists call us “Least Concern”, but I feel the change in the air. Still, I remain a creature of hope and resilience: part chameleon, part acrobat, part hunter. If you walk through Sri Lanka’s dry zone forests and glimpse a flash of red along the lip of a lizard watching you from a trunk, take a second look. That’s me. Survivor, performer, and quiet guardian of the balance!

Nestled by the lush surroundings of Udawalawe National Park, Mahoora Tented Safari Camps often plays host to a variety of smaller creatures that thrive alongside the giants of the park. On a quiet afternoon, our naturalist team came across a Painted Lip Lizard basking on a sunlit branch, its vibrant colours standing out against the greenery.