Land Mullet? [Egernia major]

I've been following this species for over a decade now. 9 animals had been imported into the states between 1997 till 2001. All were offspring that came in from the Canary Islands. At least 3 of those are dead. I've never been able to track down the 3 that came in 1997. The other 3 are divided between 2 people.There is little doubt only 3 animals are left. None are in zoos. There are none being bred here. The same goes for Europe. Very few exist there except aging animals. Unless a miracle happens with the remaining 3, they will become extinct in the states.

KL

You may want to clarify if that is nine legally imported animals (from Jim Pether by chance?) or a total including illegally smuggled animals.
I know of more than what you mentioned within private collections here in the States, however due to questionable import procedures, I doubt you'll find anyone who will blatantly advertise they have them.

I do hope you are right. Yes, those 9 were all from Jim Pether. I kept track of 6 of them since those 6 entered the country in 2000 or maybe it was 2001. I always had a strong interest in the species. I've never seen any evidence of others being here, legally or otherwise. But, it's impossible to know everybody and I'm just a small hobbyist so I'm not necessarily in that inner circle of big breeders. Even in Europe, I only located 4 of them and I've been looking for over 10 yrs. 3 of those (I'm not sure if he even has them anymore as it's been a few yrs) are with a guy who won't let them go and a 4th that was offered to me last yr. I turned it down because the animal looked very old as you will see in the pictures I've attached.

KL

K so you wanna get a land mullet. just so you know they really will never warm up to you even when there 2 feet long and bulky. they will still run and hide. so as long as you dont want a lizard that you can interact with your fine. also you said it can handle cold. you do realise here cold is no where near as cold as it gets there.60(16c) is about as cold as it would get around where it lives. but here is a list of aussie skinks to look up as well.rainbow skink,stiated tree, gidgee, bar sided, wa sandswimmer, golden, lemon bared,murays,dessert,night,centilian rock,common snack eye. figure if your search spectrum was bigger it might help. bare in mind there not common pets even here. and are hard to find as
A) no one wants them
B) there to hard to find as they run before you even spot them.
though they are cheeper here. if you do find one good luck and word of advice if you take him out make sure there is no where he can hide, our juvy got behind the cd,s in our cd case. we had to pull them out 1 bye 1. there also jumpers and will jump from your hand even if your standing up.(jumped from my b friend and hes 6 ft 9). have to say you guys are lucky that ou can have ausie lizards and south amerian or whatever really. our laws here make it illigal to own anything but native lizards. oh well we have enough awesomeones. but heres a web site that has pics of most of thoose skinks plus more. shame u dont like blueys their great pets and shinglebacks. have you thought about a monitor??

http://www.herpheaven.com.au/rainbow_45.html

And also that pic of the mullet looks fine thats how they look right before they shed. ours looks like that at the moment and hes less than 6mnths old.

hes also verry small to be old they get 2 feet long and get verry round and bulky

This species is not established in the states. While prior comments in this thread suggest that there are more in the USA than what I estimated (3), I am not convinced there are others. If there are others and somebody reads this who keeps the species please contact me. It is important for anyone keeping this species to work together to breed this species before they become extinct in the states.

The main reason I did not obtain that animal I posted photos of was because the backbone was sticking out quite a bit. If it were not for the animal looking somewhat thin I probably would have purchased it.

KL

ok well i post a pic of ours but yeah when there young they start out like that . once that guy gets bigger he willo bulk out and be fine ours is strating too. and if i could send you guys some i would but its illegal sorry we have very strict quarantine rules and rules regarding exports atm australia cant export animals or reptiles just like we cant import them for ets. i want a tegu but will never be allowed one. i guess after our past of un native animals messing up our native animals i understand why but it still sux. good luck though but go through that list u might find others u like that are avaliable,

I'm aware they cannot be exported out of your country. I will continue to keep searching in the states and in Europe.

Kim