Chinese Crocodile Lizard

Name: Chinese Crocodile Lizard

Medium: Oils on board

Submitted in the- David Shepherd Wildlife Artist Of The Year Competition .

Vanishing fast category. The Chinese crocodile lizard is categorised as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 

    I was very lucky to have seen one first hand at Bristol Zoo and was enchanted by its beautiful scaly skin and its rather confident little character. The photo below is what I took on the day and was the one I worked from to create a more abstract painting above. I decided to almost camouflage it into its back ground and make it hard to spot like its vanishing into its surroundings done to symbolise and mirror the real life facts that these mesmerising little reptiles are vanishing around us and if nothing is done in regards to conserving them they will completely disappear and become extinct. 

I've included extracts from the official IUCN website below to explain the true threats to these lizards. 

Threats

This species is threatened by habitat loss and by harvesting, mainly illegal hunting for the international pet trade. Logging at Chinese localities both removes perch sites and suitable ground cover and leads to desiccation of stream habitats. Electro-fishing and poisoning are frequently used to catch fish in southern China, and as a largely aquatic species animals – particularly juveniles – are susceptible to being killed by this practice. Additional pressures exist from agro-forestry, small-scale dam construction and mining activities. Only three of the Chinese localities lie within nature reserves (Huang et al. 2008); while the habitat in these areas is well-protected, illegal hunting still takes place occasionally; outside protected areas the habitat is severely degraded and illegal trade appears to be frequent, with illegal domestic trade in the species being common in cities around the species’ known localities.

In Viet Nam, forest on both sides of Yen Tu Mountain is divided into isolated fragments as a result of road-building and associated tourist infrastructure; while the lizard is found within protected areas in Viet Nam its habitat is at risk from agricultural encroachment (and associated fires), illegal timber logging and water pollution around tourist sites. Localized coal mining occurs close to two streams where the species has been found, and is leading to forest clearance and degradation in the surrounding area.