ニホントカゲ / Plestiodon japonicus

I found this lizard while weeding the garden. It is a beautiful lizard with a shiny metallic blue tail. The photo is not of a dead body, but a pretend death. It’s called thanatosis. It looked so cute that I asked it to be my model for a while.

When I caught it, it started pretending to be dead in the same position. If you release your hand or put it on the floor, it stops pretending to be dead and starts to move, but if you spread your hand out well, it stays in a handstand. It seems that they don’t know when to stop, so they stay like this.
The blue tail is a characteristic of juveniles, so I don’t know if adults will behave in the same way.

I let him down, but he stayed there. His limbs don’t twitch, but he can’t hide his heartbeat.

There is also the “Japanese grass lizard” a lizard that is often seen, but this lizard has more luster. Incidentally, they can be kept in captivity, but they need to be fed live insects, which seems to be quite difficult. After this, I returned him to the garden.