That's my nevus flammeus🔥, better known as port-wine stain🍷. It's a harmless capillary malfunction in the skin. The fine blood vessels that run below the epidermis are increased and widened, which causes the reddish color. It's already present at birth. In most cases, it's linked to a somatic mosaic mutation with exchange of a base pair in the GNAQ gene🧬. Mosaicism is a condition in which a single organism possesses more than one genetic line. Getting rid of it wouldn't be a problem these days. But I like the feature!✌️

My Chinese zodiac animal is tiger, element fire.🐯🔥

When you think about the universe, don't forget to take a look inside.

Wish you a pleasant weekend! 😊

A reptile that hugs you is only looking for your warmth or tries to eat you.

Kleptothermy, theft of warmth, is a form of thermoregulation. It occurs in a wide variety of animal species, including human. For example when we cuddle up because it's cold.

Reptiles* cannot create body heat themselves. Their metabolism is dependent on external heat sources.

When your reptile hugs it body against you, it certainly feels safe. But it doesn't do it out of affection, but because you are warm.

It's still a nice feeling.

You should always keep in mind, that it's better for the animal not to take it out of the terrarium.

My leopard geckos are about to winter rest. I initiate a near-natural rest at a temperature of around 12°C.
It's important to get an accurate picture of the animals health beforehand. This includes taking fecal samples, scanning the body for abnormalities and assessing the strength of the animal.

*From a cladistic point of view, which is the scientific standard today, the reptiles as a monophyletic taxon, i.e. as a natural (complete) descent group (Reptilia as clade), should at least also contain the birds, which are warm-blooded.

Some selfies when I was hiking in the Peruvian Cloud Forest near of Machu Picchu. Only 1% of the global woodland consists of cloud forests. It's the habitat of numerous unique animal and plant species. Cloud forests are among the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems on earth. They are particularly dependent on constant climatic conditions (e.g. leaves that are very drought-sensitive), which will change as a result of climate change. Many cloud forest regions are important agricultural production areas due to their always humid and mild climate.

My happy face after a nice and long bike ride 🚲😊💦🌞

I'm always drawn to the water.🌊
Maybe one day.. I will just swim away.🧜‍♂️😇

To photograph a lizard, you have to think like a lizard, move like a lizard...

Here I sneaked up on a sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) 🦎🌞

He clearly wanted to be seen.💚 Males turn bright green during the spring mating season - from April to June - and brown again in the late summer.🤎

🌻💚🦥