It might looks like a snake - but the creature one Beechworth farmer found is actually an extremely rare Striped Legless Lizard or Delma impar.
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Trust for Nature's North East regional manager Will Ford said it was the first time in 40 years one had been located in the Beechworth area.
He said they were classed as extinct in South Australia and habitat loss in Victoria means they are only found in a handful of sites.
"The last confirmed record for this species in the north east was back in the 1980s," Mr Ford said. "We thought they'd more or less disappeared from the region."
The striped legless lizard is distinct from a snake as it has a fleshy tongue which is not forked and external visible ears.
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"We've been helping the landholder to manage the native grassland habitat on this property for several years, so to find this species here really shows how important the work we do together is," Mr Ford said.
"The individual lizard we found was under a log out in the middle of the paddock. Often this sort of stuff would get cut up for firewood or piled up and burnt. It goes to demonstrate how critical fallen timber is as habitat for reptiles like the Striped Legless Lizard, and how valuable it is to leave fallen timber for native wildlife.
Habitat loss has reduced populations of the lizard and it has also been intentionally killed because people have mistaken it for a snake.
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