Vermont wildlife: Endangered Five-lined skink spotted - Burlington Free Press
The five-lined skink, the only lizard native to Vermont, was recently spotted in a rare sighting by The Nature Conservancy in Vermont team.
Seeing a lizard on the trail might not seem too exciting to some, but this lizard is endangered in Vermont and finding it in a protected area brought joy that the conservationists' work was making a difference. They captured a photo of the lizard, which was black with five distinct peachy lines running down from its head down its back and fading into its blue tail − pretty "snazzy" as one commenter on Instagram said.
Brush up on your knowledge of this endangered, five-stripped Vermont friend with five facts:
What does a five-lined skink look like?
The five-lined skink can be brown, gray or black, and stripe boldness can vary according to the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Stripes can fade on adult male skinks and they can develop reddish orangish heads. Young five-lined skinks have bold light-colored stripes and bright blue tails, like the one TNC workers found. They can range from five inches to eight and a half inches long.
Where can you find five-linked skinks in Vermont?
While their northernmost habitats do reach Vermont and other northern states including Michigan and New York, five-lined skinks like the Midwest and the Southeast for the regions' warm, wet, deciduous and pine forests. The lizards like to hang out on the ground and in trees, especially fallen decaying trees and stumps. They can also be found in rock slides, cliffs, areas near ledges and old buildings. They do not like dry dune-grasslands or high-elevation forests. The only recorded sightings of five-lined skinks in Vermont have been in West Haven, a town west of Rutland in Rutland County according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
What do skinks eat?
Five-lined skinks eat a steady diet of grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, leafhoppers, a variety of beetles, beetle larvae, flies, ants, spiders, caterpillars and other bugs according to the Virginia Herpetological Society and Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.
What eats five-lined skinks?
The only known predators to the five-lined skink are corn snakes and domestic cats, but scientists think other snakes and birds of prey also eat them.
What is unique about five-lined skinks?
The five-lined skink is nicknamed "blue-tailed swift" because of it's speedy escape skills. Speed is not its only asset, however; it also has a secret weapon. The skink has a tail that can detach, like several other lizard species, so they have a better chance of surviving predator attacks. The lizard's bright blue tail will keep moving after it detaches to distract the predator while the lizard runs away.
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