Common Blue-Tongued Skink
Least Concern
Grassland
Australia
Diurnal
Omnivorous
N/A
Characteristics
Common blue-tongued skinks are medium to large, heavy-bodied lizards with short, stubby legs. Their smooth, scaley bodies are long and cylindrical, and their large heads are relatively flat and triangular. Blue-tongued skinks are aptly named for their bright blue-purple tongues. When threatened, they flash their tongues at predators to scare them away.
Body color varies by subspecies, of which there are at least three. Common blue-tongue skinks can vary between silver, yellow, brown, or black with darker irregular cross bands on the body or tail. These markings can be quite faint in some cases. Sometimes, these lizards have a dark streak across their face passing from their eyes to their ears. Their underbellies are white to pale yellow.
Common blue-tongue skinks can grow as long as two feet! However, size can also vary between subspecies.
Habitat & Ecology
Common blue-tongued skinks are native to Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. They are entirely terrestrial and prefer open habitats with mild climates such as savanna, grassland, semi-deserts, mixed woodland, and scrubland.
Diet
Skinks are known to be omnivorous and eat a wide variety of food. They feed on an assortment of invertebrates: insects, snails, worms, and more! They will also eat smaller reptiles and supplement their diet with fruit, berries, flowers, fungi, and carrion. They lack well-developed teeth. In fact, if you look only briefly in their mouths you may struggle to find any teeth at all. However, their strong jaw muscles and powerful bites help them crush the shells of the beetles and snails they eat.
Behavior & Reproduction
Since blue-tongued skinks are ectothermic (a.k.a. cold blooded), as all reptiles are, their daily routines are centered around temperature regulation. In the early morning, they head out to bask in sunny areas and then begin foraging for food. When active, they try to maintain a body temperature of 86-95 °F. In cold weather, they are inactive and retreat to sheltered burrows and denser foliage.
To protect themselves, blue-tongued skinks will flash their brightly colored tongues to scare off predators. If this does not work, they are also known to hiss and flatten their bodies to make themselves look bigger and may even bite. They are also capable of dropping their tails to flee from predators and can grow them back after a while.
These solitary lizards seldom interact outside of breeding season. Blue-tongued skinks breed annually in the spring, which takes place from August to November in the southern hemisphere. During this time, males will fight aggressively with each other to compete for females. After mating, females go through a 3-4 month pregnancy, before giving live birth. This is because several skink species are ovoviviparous. They produce eggs like any other reptile, but these eggs gestate and hatch inside the female. This process avoids the dangers of leaving eggs exposed to the possibility of predators.
Offspring are born in clutches of 10-15 and each tiny hatchling is only 3-5 inches long. The baby skinks are ready to fend for themselves after birth and quickly disperse. It takes about 3 years for them to reach sexual maturity.
Wild: 12-20 years, Protected Care: 18-30 years
August-November
10-15
1 year
Conservation
The common blue-tongued skink is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. This species was last evaluated in 2017 and found to have a stable population. Their biggest threats are invasive species and diseases. Blue-tongued skinks are also commonly preyed on by domestic cats and dogs, which could impact the population.
Two subspecies of common blue-tongued skink, Tiliqua scincoides intermedia and Tiliqua scincoides scincoides, were added to Appendix III of CITES in 2022.
Fascinating Facts
- Blue-tongues skinks tongues are more brightly colored further back. They stick more and more of their tongue out depending on how big the threat is.
- There are several hypotheses that common blue-tongued skinks have evolved to mimic death adders. Their triangular heads, similar coloration, and thick bodies can make them hard to tell apart when hiding in the grass.
- Skinks, like all other lizards and snakes, can smell with a special organ in their mouth called a vomeronasal (or Jacobsons) organ. They stick their tongues out to explore their surroundings and bring the smells into their mouths.
About Our Animals
The Oakland Zoo is home to two blue-tongued skinks, both of which are part of our animal ambassador program. Our oldest skink is Azul, who was born around 1996 and has been living at the zoo since 1999. Since she is a northern blue-tongued skink (T.s. intermedia) she is much larger and a lighter color than her neighbor, Oxido. Oxido is our smaller male skink, and he was born in 2010 at the John Ball Zoo. In 2011, when he was only a year old, he came to live with us in Oakland. Azul and Oxido are both wonderful ambassadors. They love interacting with new enrichment and are especially excited to encounter new smells.
You can meet Azul and Oxido during special Zoomobile, Wildlife Assembly, or ZooCamp programs. During these programs, kids can learn more about these animals and the habitats, adaptations, or other features that make them special. You might also get lucky on your next visit to the zoo and encounter them on a serendipitous Pathway Encounter or Wildlife Theater show.
