Cunningham's Skink

Cunningham's Skink
Skink basking in the sunlight
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Scincidae
Genus:	Egernia
Species:	E. cunninghami
Binomial name
Egernia cunninghami (Gray, 1832)
Synonyms
Tiliqua cunninghami Gray, 1832

Cunningham's Skink (Egernia cunninghami) is a large skink species native to southeastern Australia. It can reach up to 30 cm in length, and may be confused with blue-tongued lizards.

They have a distinctive keel on each scale, which gives them a slightly spiny appearance. Extremely variable in colour ranging from dark brown to black, with or without blotchy patches, speckles or narrow bands.^[1]

It prefers to live communally in the crevices of rocky outcrops or hollow logs.^[1] It is a diurnal omnivore with its diet including insects, flowers, berries, fungi, leaves and young shoots. There is currently research being done on the isolated population that inhabits the southern Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia. This population is considered vulnerable due to the fragmented (disjunct) distribution of the 'colonies'. There is evidence that at least one of these colonies has totally disappeared. It is more common within suitable habitat along the southeastern coast and ranges of Australia.

Like some other reptiles the species it is viviparous, giving birth to six or more live young in a litter.

Gallery

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  Basking on fallen log

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  Two skinks resting on granite boulders, the spiny keel of the scales can be seen on the tail

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  Cunningham's Skink in southern ACT

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  Three skinks, Cabbage Bay, near Sydney, NSW

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Wilson S, Swan G. A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia. Second edition. Sydney:New Holland Publ., 2003

• Egernia cunninghami, Australian Faunal Directory
• Cunningham's Skink fact sheet, Museum of Victoria