During my recent desert trip I had a really strange wildlife encounter.
It happened in a beautiful stretch of white sandy desert growing several single shrubs many meters apart, each hosting some critters, among which were several lizards (small light-brown ones).
We were taking a noon break in the shade of a bolder and were just boiling water on my simple Esbit stove for to have tea.
Suddenly a single lizard emerged from a shrub several meters off, run straight towards us, passed by me very close following a straight line ahead towards the stove setup and stopped right in front of it, staring into the bleaking flames.
Then the beast bite aggressively right into the flame for three or four times.
It stood still staring into the flames for some more seconds, then turned around and ran back the same way it came up.
All this happened at a speed that I had the camera ready only when the beast was gone for good, unfortunately.
My guess is, that the beast assumed a competitor and tried to fight it.
Or what would you say?