Skinks: Scincidae

Many of the skinks are active during the day, spending much of their days looking for food and sunbathing, or basking. Some species, such as the well-named night skink, only come out in the darkness. Most skinks are nervous animals that take cover if they feel even slightly threatened. For this reason, people often have only short glimpses of them before the lizards dart into a pile of brush or under a log. If an attacker is able to catch a skink before it can take cover, many of the species drop the tail, which continues to wiggle for several minutes. This draws the attention of the attacker and allows the lizard to escape. When the coast is clear, some skinks will return to whatever is left of the tail and eat it themselves. The tail grows back, but it is typically not as long as the original tail. The bobtail is unusual among skinks in that it does not immediately flee when a predator arrives. Instead, this slow-moving lizard stands its ground, opens wide its mouth, and flaps its bright blue tongue.

Skinks do not pant as other lizards do, and scientists think that their extra palate is the reason why. Other lizards pant to cool off. The air they draw in and breathe out when panting cools off the blood in blood vessels along the roof of the mouth. The extra palate in skinks, however, may cover up the blood vessels so much that the air cannot get close enough to cool the blood, making panting useless. Instead, these lizards beat the heat by resting in a shady spot or cool underground burrow.

During mating season, males of many species will fight, biting one another on the head, neck, and tail until one gives up and leaves. In some species, male-female pairs remain together from year to year. Females of some species lay eggs, but other females give birth to baby skinks. Strangely, two species of skinks from Australia— Bougainville's skink and the three-toed skink—do both. Among skinks, the number of young varies from species to species, with some females having only one or two eggs or young at a time, and others having up to sixty-seven. Although most females make their own individual nests, mothers in a few species lay their eggs together in one big nest. Whether they nest together or alone, parents of many species provide some care to their eggs and young.