Broad-headed Skink

Description:

The broadhead skink gets its name from the wide jaws, giving the head a triangular appearance. Adult males are brown or olive brown in color and have bright orange heads during the mating season in spring. Females have five light stripes running down the back and the tail, similar to the Five-lined Skink. Juveniles are dark brown or black and also striped and have blue tails.

Habitat:

Rangewide, the species occupies wooded areas and woodland edges having diverse soil types and moisture conditions; hammocks and cypress heads in Florida; also swamps, vacant debris-strewn lots, and barrier islands. These lizards are semi-arboreal and often sun themselves on snags or stumps; they take refuge in rotting stumps and standing dead trees, occupying old woodpecker holes and other hollows. On coastal islands in South Carolina, they prefer large live oaks having holes and a fringe of dense cover (bushes) (Cooper 1993); adults occur most often in oaks or on the ground, juveniles occur most often on walls, palmettos, or on the ground; they may actively avoid pines (Cooper and Vitt 1994). Eggs are laid in a nest in a rotting stump or dead tree or under rocks or other cover.