Common Sun Skink

Description:

Scincidae; Eutropis multifasciata (Kuhl, 1820). The Common Sun Skink is a very handsome lizard with beautiful glossy scales which glint in the sunshine. It also has another quality which it shares with other lizards. I am referring to its amazing strategy for escaping from predators. If it is attacked, it runs away at great speed and the attacker is, therefore, put in the position of pursuing from behind. If the pursuer manages to catch up, it is very likely to get hold of the lizard's tail. So, the lizard just drops its tail to distract the attacker and makes an escape without losing a single drop of blood. In fact there is no actual wound. It is an "evolutionary trick" which is explained in detail on australiangeographic.com

Habitat:

This Common Sun Skink was spotted in our back yard.

Notes:

This morning, I noticed something lying on the ground in our front yard. Having seen this kind of thing before, I knew what it was - the discarded tail of a lizard. It would normally have been swept up immediately, but there was heavy rain all morning and I forgot about it. By mid-afternoon, the weather was much better and I went out to the backyard to see what i could photograph for Project Noah and there I spotted a Common Sun Skink with its tail missing. So, I took some pictures and went out to the front of the house to see if the tail was still on the ground, which it was. I thought about it for a moment, because I would not want to publish a P. N. Spotting of an injured animal, but this was not an injury it was a successful escape. So I took a picture of the tail. We have three dogs and a cat here. The cat would normally be the main suspect in this attack on the lizard, but it is old now and was sleeping in the terrace all day. I am pretty certain that the culprit was our youngest dog. She is small and quick. My greatest fear is that she will encounter one of the snakes which occasionally wander onto the property. Then she will have something more than a discarded tail to deal with.