The Five-lined Skink is our most common lizard. They are usually black or dark brown, with five light stripes down their backs. Stripes fade as the skink gets older, so adults may look all brown.Male adult Five-lined Skinks often have bright orange jaws during the breeding season.Young skinks have very clear stripes and a bright blue tail. Females may keep a very full bluish-gray tail as they age, but males' tails will turn brown.
Ten Facts about Five-lined Skink
- There size can be 5-8.5 in. (12.5-21.5 cm).
- Five-lined skinks eat various arthropods including spiders, roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, and beetle larvae.
- The five-lined skink occurs throughout North Carolina except for the Outer Banks.
- They can be found in almost any habitat but are most abundant in areas with rotting stumps and logs, in swamps, and along river margins.
- Five-lined skinks generally mate in spring and lay 6 to 10 eggs in nests which are usually in rotten stumps or logs, sawdust piles, or beneath sheltering objects.
- Five-lined Skinks will often climb dead trees where there are a lot of insects.
- Predators of these lizards include Raccoons, Red Foxes, Virginia Opossums, snakes, and hawks.
- Five-lined Skinks are diurnal, so they are active during the day.
- Five-lined Skinks help control insect pest populations. They are often seen climbing walls and shutters of houses looking for insects.
- Young Five-lined Skinks are about two inches long when born.
