Sitana ponticeriana
Silhouette: Michael Scroggie · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Sitana ponticeriana, the Pondichéry fan-throated lizard, is a species of agamid lizard found in eastern peninsular India. It was earlier thought to be widespread but studies in 2016 resulted in the splitting of the group into several species placed in two genera. The genus Sitana has an enlarged projecting scale on the posterior side of the hind thigh which is absent in the sister genus Sarada.
The species is found mostly on the ground in open ground patches in thin forests. When disturbed this lizard sometimes runs with a bipedal gait. Upper head-scales small, sharply keeled; canthus rostralis and supraciliary edge sharp, with much enlarged scales. Dorsal scales larger than ventrals, with sharp keels forming straight longitudinal lines; lateral scales smallest, uniform or intermixed with scattered enlarged ones. The fore limb does not extend on to the vent, if laid backwards; the hind limb reaches to the orbit, if laid forwards; the lower thigh is rather shorter than the foot (measured from the heel to the tip of the longest toe), the length of which is only three-fourths of the distance between the shoulder and hip joints. Limbs above with uniform strongly keeled... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Fan Throated Lizard sighting in Yala National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 7th most-seen of the 15 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and September
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Fan Throated Lizard in Yala National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and October–December, the lowest months. Those are among Yala National Park's driest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 340 mm in November.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fan Throated Lizard sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Yala National Park, in our data
Yala National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Fan Throated Lizard sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Agamidae
The closest relatives of the Fan Throated Lizard that you can see in Yala National Park (family Agamidae, Dragons) are Oriental Garden Lizard (about 70%), Ceylon Bloodsucker (about 20%) and Common Green Forest Lizard (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan Throated Lizard is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Yala National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
