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The Five-lined Skink (Eumeces fasciatus)
COSEWIC Status-Special Concern OMNR-Vulnerable  |
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Habitat: On the Canadian Shield prefers open woodlands
and rock outcrops.
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| Description: Ontario's only lizard, the five-lined skink is shiny scaled, with five yellowish or cream coloured stripes running from the nose down the back, sides and tail. These stripes fade or may disappear on older males. The background colour is black in juveniles and young adult females but fades to brown, grey or olive in older adults. The juveniles have bright blue tails and adult females often retain some bluish colour. The tails of adult males are grey and they develop a reddish or orange coloured nose and jaws. These colours are more intense during the breeding season. The adults are up to 20cm in length. | |
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Habits: Five-lined skinks hibernate from early October to mid-May often in small groups. Suitable sites include old burrows, rotting stumps, old building foundations or rock crevices. They forage during the day feeding mainly on insects and spiders. Large adults may eat newborn mice or small frogs. When warm, they are alert and fast moving. They are able to drop their tail to help escape from predators. Later a new tail will grow, however it shorter than the original and usually greyish. While losing its tail may help distract a predator, the tail stores fat reserves whiich are needed during hibernation. The loss of a tail close to hibernation may be costly. |
| Male skinks aggressively defend their territory in the breeding season
of May to mid-June. An average of 9 eggs is produced in June to early July.
A nest site is typically in rotting wood or under a rock. These nest sites
may be used by a group of females. For 24-55 days, the female guards the
eggs. Her care ends when the hatchlings leave the nest in a couple of days.
The hatchlings are 3.5 to 6.4 cm long and are brightly coloured. Five-lined
skinks mature their 2nd year but will likely only breed twice in their lifetime;
few live beyond 5 years. |
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