Egernia kingii

Taxobox
name = King's Skink


image_width = 240px
image_caption = Probable King's Skink at Rottnest Island, off Western Australia
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia (paraphyletic)
unranked_ordo = Sauria
ordo = Squamata (paraphyletic)
infraordo = Scincomorpha
familia = Scincidae
subfamilia = Lygosominae
genus = "Egernia"
species = "E. kingii"
binomial = "Egernia kingii"
binomial_authority = (Gray, 1832)

King's Skink ("Egernia kingii") is a skink species native to coastal south-western Australia [cite web|url=http://www.waratahsoftware.com.au/wp_lizards_skinks.html|title=Waratah Software Natural Images of Australia|year=2008|accessdate=2008-05-03] common on Rottnest Island and Penguin Island and some coastal areas with open forest and open heath. It is a large, heavy-bodied black skink that can reach a length of convert|55|cm|in|0|lk=on [cite web|url=http://www.waratahsoftware.com.au/wp_lizards_skinks.html|title=Waratah Software Natural Images of Australia|year=2008|accessdate=2008-05-03] with a mass of convert|220|g|oz|0|lk=on.

This reptile is omnivorous and consumes mostly softer plant matter from the range of local vegetation, but supplements it's diet with insects and bird's eggs. [cite web|url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO02040.htm|title=CSIRO publishing - The reproduction and diet of Egernia kingii (Reptilia : Scincidae) on Penguin Island, Western Australia|year=2008|accessdate=2003-05-03] They are prey for many aimals including Tiger Snakes. [cite web|url=http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/Shinelab/staff/xavier/amphreptil2004.pdf|title=Diet divergence of two neibouring populations of tiger snakes|year=2003|accessdate=2003-05-03]

The Aboriginal people, the Noongar word for the King's Skink is Wandy. [cite web|url=http://www.omninet.net.au/~bhoward/Nind.html|title=Vocabulary collected by Isaac Scott Nind 1826-1829 at King George's Sound|year=2008|accessdate=2008-05-03] The first European to draw a King's Skink was the artist and naturalist Ferdinand Bauer who made a detailed drawing of one during Flinders' expedition in 1801. [cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/navigators/naturalists/bauer.htm|title=ABC - The Nauralists - Ferdinand Bauer|year=2008|accessdate=2008-05-03]

Like many skinks, they are viviparous and after a gestation period of 20 - 22 weeks. [cite web|url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO02040.htm|title=CSIRO publishing - The reproduction and diet of Egernia kingii (Reptilia : Scincidae) on Penguin Island, Western Australia|year=2008|accessdate=2003-05-03] give birth to litters of 2 - 8 young that have a typical mass of convert|7|g|oz|0|lk=on Juvenile mortality is high and growth to adult size is slow, so mature King's Skinks can be quite long lived.

References

* [http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=REPTILIA;pstrTaxa=724;pstrChecklistMode=1 Australian Faunal Directory]

External links

* [http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Egernia_kingii More photos]
* [http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/faunabase/_asp_bin/MapITcx.asp?d=Reptiles&t=Egernia%20kingii Distribution map]