My First Scorpion

Lifted up a rock to use as a tarp anchor and there it was. It ran away into a little tunnel in the hole in the ground so I just put the rock back and left it alone. However, because it was only 2 yards from where I was sleeping, I couldn't relax!

So I dug it out of the hole and we played around with it for a bit to take photos (I'm holding its tail against the ground here with a stick) and then I picked it up with a stick to take it elsewhere away from where we were. However, we then thought (probably wrongly!) that they might be like mice and return to where they came from, so regrettably I killed it. Felt a bit bad about it but there you go. Poor scorpion!

Looks a lot bigger here than it really was! People tell me it's quite big for a scorpion though. From memory it was probably about 5 inches long, including the tail. It was pretty small really.

In the morning when I lifted up my rollmat there was a really small scorpion underneath it - they obviously like sitting in little nooks and crannies!

I've been trying to identify the scorpion on the internet, but haven't managed to quite. So, in the unlikely event that you're an expert, please let me know what it is!