Just a lizard strummin' on a leaf guitar. Nothing to see here.
Photographer Aditya Permana said he happened upon a forest dragon lizard in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and managed to capture the moment the little reptile picked up a leaf and held it like a guitar. Permana watched the lizard for an hour before getting the shot, but it was clearly well worth the time spent.
"I did not directly photograph the lizard at first, until the lizards feel calm and comfortable around me," he said, per the Daily Mail. "I noticed it looked like it was playing a guitar – and it didn’t move at all."
Some who've seen the picture have questioned whether it may have been staged. Gawker's Antiviral blog suggested that the image shares similarities with other images that have drawn such accusations in the past. Two herpetologists who spoke to HuffPost said that it's unlikely that the lizard would have positioned itself in this way, or remained that way for very long.
"Lizards do not lay on their backs and sit up like the one shown in the photo," Adam D. Leache, an associate professor and curator of genetic resources and herpetology for the Department of Biology and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington, told HuffPost by email.
Permana did not return requests for further comment.
H/T Bored Panda
This article has been updated with additional sources raising concerns about the authenticity of the photograph.
