Scientific Name
- The scientific name of Blue Tongue Skink is Tiligua Scincoides.
Description
- This is a large lizard with long body, large head and small legs with delicate toes.
- The tail is shorter than the body and generally tapers to a point.
- Colour consists of a pattern of dark brown bars on a light brown or cream background; orange bars alternate with brown on the sides.
- They have faint eye stripes and a cobalt-blue tongue.
- Scales are shiny, overlapping, and contain small plates of bone.
- Eardrums are sunken into cavities on sides of head.
- Skin is shed in pieces.
- They can shed its tail to escape predators and has a moveable and transparent lower eyelid to protect its eyes from dust and still see.
- They might ingests small stones to help digest its food.
Distribution
- They are found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea.
Breeding
- Northern blue tongues are among the easiest and most predictable breeder of the common blue tongues.
- Unfortunately there is no reliable method to sex juveniles.
- If your goal is to breed, you must either purchase proven adults or raise up juveniles until they can be sexed.
- One reliable method of sexing adults is to house each blue tongue separately in a container void of substrate, the males will regularly shed small clear seminal plugs.
Nesting
- Does not lay eggs, but give birth to live young lizards.
- A female will only produce around 5-15 young lizards a year.
Size
- Adult: 17 to 24 inches.
Life Span
- 18 to 20 years.
Food and Feeding
- These lizards are omnivorous, eating a variety of insects, snails, carrion, flowers and fruits.
- The reptiles are not very agile and the animals they eat are mostly slow moving.
- Their teeth are large and they have strong jaw muscles so they can crush snails and beetles.
Where Do Blue Tongue Skinks Live?
- They live principally in open country with lots of ground cover such as tussocky grasses or leaf litter.
- The Northern Blue Tongue lives in tropical/savannah woodland in the northern part of West Australia.