A young blue-tailed skink
object of cats' attention
I'm glad you escaped
A few nights ago, I heard a minor scuffle in the kitchen, and when I went to investigate, I found both cats circling, and staring fixedly at a juvenile blue-tailed skink on the kitchen floor.
Whether he wandered in on his own, or whether one cat or the other brought him in from outside was unclear, but as he appeared to be entirely unharmed, I'm guessing it was the former.
In any case, I quickly caught him and removed him from harm's way, and initially placed him in a large plastic container, which had formerly contained chia seeds, the better to observe him and make certain that he was, indeed, unharmed.
As I had no idea how long he had been in the house, I gave him a meal worm and a meal worm larvae, as I raise them for our turtle Toby, in addition to a small bowl of water. We must keep our guests well hydrated, after all. ;-)
By morning, he had shed part of his tail skin in the water, but hadn't touched the meal worms, and I'm not certain that he recognized them as food, as he would not likely have encountered them outside.
I made the decision to release him, and did so by placing the container he was in on its side near our front steps, with the opening aimed toward our covered front porch, which would give him plenty of cover until he got his bearings. I took the photo above just after placing the container on its side, as he was deciding what to do, and whether or not to leave the relative safety of the container.
Surprisingly, he remained in the container for a couple of hours, but did finally vacate it for (literally) greener pastures.
Before he took his leave, I discovered that our much-beloved native blue-tailed skink is, in actuality, the five-lined skink, Plestiodon fasciatus,, which has a blue tail only as a juvenile. As it matures, the tail and the light stripes gradually fade to a duller, more uniform brown.
The true blue-tailed skink, Cryptoblepharus egeriae, is native only to Christmas Island, in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and is critically endangered, primarily due to human activity and loss of habitat. Technically, it is listed as “Extinct in the Wild.”
Happily our North American blue tailed / five lined skinks are doing much better, and are one of the most common lizards in the Eastern US., with a large natural range.
They have long been my favorite North American lizard, not surprisingly, since blue is my favorite color.
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