Blue-Tongued Skink
(Tiliqua sp.)

Range: Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia.

Habitat: Desert, grassland.
Diet: Omnivorous; eats fruit, vegetables, pinkies (hairless baby mice), and insects.
Identification:  Large, usually brown colored lizards with broad, spade-shaped heads and blue tongues. Dark bars present on some species.

Notes: These large skinks are named for their bright-blue tongues. They are considerably broader than most skink species. Like many skinks they are found primarily on the ground (their low, relatively flat, broad body is built for this). These skinks are relatively mellow animals, though they will tense, open their mouth, hiss, flare their tongue and potentially bite if disturbed. They will also attempt to hide from predators.  Many species are found in Australia, so many pets now come from New Guinea as Australian animal export is banned. While they are one of the easier lizards to take care of they are an exotic animal with relatively specific care needs and are not the right pet for most people. This species can live to be well over ten years old. They are omnivorous, greatly benefiting from a great variety in their diet. Like all ectotherms blue-tongued skins require sunlight for their inner temperature, metabolism and general health. Most varieties are a brown color with darker bars. Hatchling Blue-Tongued Skinks look like digit-sized versions of their parents. There are six species of blue-tongued skink.

Above is a healthy Blue-Tongued Skink. To the right is our Skink, the result of extraordinary cruelty.

At The Children’s Museum: The Children’s Museum has a Blue-tongued skink in the UTC Wildlife sanctuary.