Ground Skink

Genus Scincella

Reptile

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about ground skinks. Ground skinks are reptiles that, likely unsurprisingly, spend most of their time on the ground. Many other skink species are climbers, but these guys are diggers. Their favorite place to be is under a layer of leaf litter on the forest floor. Ground skinks are usually brown in color to help them blend in with the environment. Ground skinks are found throughout the world, usually in temperate and tropical regions, however, a person is more likely to hear a ground skink than to see one.

Ground skinks typically live in leaf litter, but they’ll burrow through pine needles and even enjoy climbing through rocks. They’re skittish critters and will often run at the first sign of danger. Well, we say run, but that’s not always the case - we’ll come back to that in a minute. Ground skinks spend most of their time hiding under the top layer of a forest floor. They may be found from from sea level to mountainous areas, but they pretty much always need to have some sort of substrate in which to hide. This is why they’re more often heard than seen. As a ground skink scampers away, the substrate will rustle and the skink will be gone without ever even appearing above the top soil’s surface. If someone was able to catch a quick glimpse, however, they may mistake the tiny skink for a snake.

Ground skinks are relatively small lizards. They average about two and a half inches (63.5 millimeters) from their snouts to their base of their tails, but can double that when their tail length is included. Of course, these skinks are quick to drop their tail if attacked by a predator which can include other reptiles, birds, small mammals, and even the opportunistic spider. Many lizards species drop, or autotomize, their tails as a way to escape predators and ground skinks are no exception. Most wild ground skinks don’t have the original tails they were born with because they’ve dropped them and regrown new ones! This plays a part in ground skink reproduction, but first let’s talk about why these skinks are sometimes confused for snakes!

If you haven’t already noticed, ground skinks have some stubby limbs, so ground skinks often don’t even bother using their limbs while moving! Because they live under the forest floor, they can push their bodies through the substrate in a snake-like manner. It almost looks like they’re swimming through the leaves! Pft! Legs and tails, who needs ‘em?

Actually, momma ground skinks do need their tails. Female ground skinks use their tails as a place to store fat which helps provide energy to eggs growing inside of her. If a female has dropped her tail too recently before a breeding season, she may not breed that season. It takes a lot of energy to grow a tail and to nourish babies, and a female ground skink isn’t typically able to do both at the same time. If she has managed to hold onto her tail, she may produce multiple egg clutches in throughout the summer. Ground skinks lay their eggs in moist soil, under rocks, and in rotting logs. Larger females tend to lay more eggs, but a clutch size is still usually fewer than ten eggs. In some species, five or more clutches may be laid in a season. The eggs hatch within two months, and the babies are on their own from birth.

In areas where the weather gets too cold, ground skinks will become dormant during the winter, though in warmer places they’ll stay active year round. Most often ground skinks are active during the day. Ground skinks eat arthropods including millipedes, spiders, cockroaches, beetles, and more! What’s amazing about them, though, is that they can see even with their eyes closed! Ground skinks have transparent windows in their lower eyelids through which they can see even when the lid is shut tight!

For more facts on ground skinks, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.