The cats have occasionally caught and killed these and I wondered about them because they are obviously not skinks. Skinks and 2 kinds of geckos are common around the house but I finally found a live one of the mystery lizards on the hill that I managed to photograph.
Nothing yellow-throated about this lizard, it is red! Yellow-throated Plated Lizards or Gerrhosaurus flavigularis are bigger than skinks and apparently also can be kept as pets and live for over 10 years, eating millipedes and other large insects. This one crouched there long enough for me to photograph i but then rushed off under a rock, which was presumably it's home, they live in burrows.
I don't usually go walking around in the rocks around midday, it's too hot but these guys like it and you won't see them at other times.
