The agile lizard and the scaly order

The scaly order includes lizards and snakes; the body is covered with horny scales. In the deserts of Uzbekistan live the steppe agama, the grey monitor lizard (a large lizard listed in the Red Book) and the legless yellow lizard called sariq ilon, which is a lizard, not a snake. The gecko is active at night in old buildings and hides in cracks by day, eating insects and spiders. Snakes have no legs and move by bending the body in waves and pushing on the ribs. A lizard has movable eyelids, while a snake’s eye is covered by a transparent watch-glass-like layer, so a snake cannot close its eyes. When a snake moults the skin comes off whole like a sock, a lizard’s in pieces. A snake’s jaw bones are joined by stretchy ligaments, so it swallows prey thicker than itself whole. A venomous snake has two venom fangs in the upper jaw and venom glands. The sand boa and water snake are harmless; the boa wraps prey in its coils and squeezes it, and gives birth to live young. The venomous snakes of Uzbekistan are the cobra, the blunt-nosed viper (ko‘lvor), the saw-scaled viper (charx) and the shieldnose (qalqontumshuq). The cobra spreads its neck when threatened, and the saw-scaled viper rubs its scales to rasp. Venomous snakes also help people by eating rodents, and medicines are made from venom. After a snakebite the person lies calmly, the bitten limb is kept still, and 103 is called at once – only a hospital gives antivenom. Never cut the wound, suck it, tie a tight band or pour alcohol on it.