This absolutely stunning animal is Yoda, a male Sudanese spiny tail lizard, a species which is also known as an Ocellated Uromastyx.  He is the first spiny tailed lizard I have ever kept despite falling in love with these animals at a very young age, so I am very excited to have him in my collection!

As the name suggests these lizards originate in Sudan in northern Africa and they are used to living in very hot and dry conditions, which is reflected in the way in which they need to be housed in captivity.  As the name also suggests they have an amazing spiny tail as you can see in these pictures:

Yoda is a very friendly lizard and seems to enjoy being handled, as long as it is done gently of course.  Spiny tailed lizards are vegetarian, which is quite unusual among lizards in general.  I feed him a varied diet and he especially likes various salad leaves, fruits and vegetables including apple, carrot, strawberries and corn, flowers and their leaves (such as dandelion) and also seeds and other pulses like lentils and pumpkin seeds!