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Giant Legless Skink

Acontias plumbeus

Description:

Specimen about 15-17 cm, but can grow up to 40 cm. This skink can be found in various habitat types from desert sand and coastal dunes, dry shrubland and savanna, to woodland humus and forest floors.

Habitat:

Spotted at the Northern entrance of the Mlawula Nature reserve. Savanna/Woodland. Semi-dry area.

Notes:

The receptionist holding the lizard is very brave. She is very afraid of snakes and it took her a lot of courage to hold this, even if I convinced her it was not a snake. We looked at the differences together and once she managed to hold it, the guys around were brave enough to do the same thing :)

1 Species ID Suggestions

KateBraun
KateBraun 9 years ago
Giant Legless Skink
Acontias plumbeus Swaziland's Reptiles Database


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7 Comments

Tiz
Tiz 9 years ago

Thank you for your comments Adi, Sunny and Tom :) Tom, when this lizard moves it also looks very awkward. I think that they really would have found some legs quite useful...

Adarsha B S
Adarsha B S 9 years ago

Awesome spotting :)

sunnyjosef
sunnyjosef 9 years ago

Beautiful spotting Tiz..

Tom15
Tom15 9 years ago

Nice find, that looks like a missing link:-)

Tiz
Tiz 9 years ago

Many thanks for the ID Kate :) Perhaps I will se a fully grown one some day...

KateBraun
KateBraun 9 years ago

The information on Wikipedia has this one at 40cm, so this must be a young one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acontias

Tiz
Tiz 9 years ago

Yes Searra. You hav to get pretty close to see the lizard features, and many people prefer to stay away from things that looks like a snake :)

I have to say that this lizard had more trouble moving that I though it would have. It moved sideways/forward as a snake, but it took him a long time to even move a meter on tarmac. But I guess that without legs, it is easier to get into small holes in the ground, like termite and ant nests.

Tiz
Spotted by
Tiz

Sifundza seLubombo, Swaziland

Spotted on Apr 9, 2014
Submitted on May 18, 2014

Spotted for Mission

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