who here has ever seen a skink?

[Lost4words]

just curious, weird looking critter. Our cat caught one this summer I was on scene and made my big boy cat drop the thing out of his mouth.

(He is an indoor cat with supervised outdoor visits)

It seemed unhurt and scurried away under a nearby yucca plant.

This reptile thing looked like a salamander on steroids.

("or maybe flax seed oil" inside baseball joke)

It was about 9 inches long tappered like a snake with 4 stubby legs.

It moved very fast (getting free from kitty) by using both its feet and snake like movements, it was mostly greenish. The only one I have ever seen and had never heard of SKINKS before.

Got a skinking story to tell?

[dolo amber]

1. Is that related to a snipe?

:shrug:

[murielm99]

18. Or snarks or boojums?

We don't seem to have any skinks in Illinois.

No snarks or boojums, either.

[StopTheMorans]

21. or intelligent or reasonable republicans?

[murielm99]

34. We definitely don't have those in Illinois.

Remember Alan Keyes? LOL

I wish the ones we have would all go find a boojum.

[micrometer_50]

40. We have boojum

trees in Arizona.

http://www.oceanoasis.org/fieldguide/fouq-col.html

[Frogtutor]

39. TRUE snipe story!!

(Sorry, original poster for getting off track here)

My husband is a hunter and occasionally gets mail from the TX Dept. of Parks and Wildlife. One day he got a survey asking about what kinds of animals he hunts. It listed every kind of game animal you can imagine, so it was pretty long. I was curious, and started reading it and there was a listing for SNIPE!

I asked my husband, "this is a joke, right? Surely to God, this is a joke!" He had never heard of it either. But it seemed really bizarre to have a joke like that on an official government mailing. So, I looked it up, and there is a bird called a snipe.

believe it or not!



http://www.nenature.com/CommonSnipe.htm

[StopTheMorans]

2. I go looking for them almost every weekend, and have a fairly high

success rate...

[dolo amber]

3. No dear...not *skanks*

:7

[StopTheMorans]

4. oh, sorry, my bad

*slinks away*

[Lost4words]

13. BawHaHa LOL n/t

[bowens43]

5. They're all over the place here in north carolina

(skinks not skanks)

[Squatch]

6. Found one in my garage. Actually a beautiful little critter.

Tried to shoo it away, but it ran under my foot as I was "corraling" it. I was pretty bummed.

It looked like this guy...the five-lined skink...has that crazy blue tail.

[Lost4words]

20. Wow. how big was it? the one I saw was 9"

Out here in New Mexico we have Giant Desart Centipedes. had a 7 inch-er in our house and they are poisonous. One stung/bit one of our cats and we had to do an emergency vet visit. She, Gracie the cat was OK after steroid shot.

[Squatch]

22. Oh, this guy was about 7 inches or so...

And quick.

[skypilot]

7. I've only seen one...

...on one of those Time/Life nature shows narrated by David Attenburrough (sp?) I ordered the series a few years back. It's about time I watch them again now that I think about it.

By the way, you do know that your post will give rise to innumerable copycat threads, don't you?

[Lost4words]

24. Copycat threads? Why? cause of skanks?

[skypilot]

28. Even BEFORE that post...

...I thought that your thread was likely to produce copycats. Maybe it won't happen this time. Maybe it's still too early in the morning for some people. But believe me yours is a perfect candidate for producing copycat threads.

[Gato Moteado]

8. seen lots of them

they're common in dry forested areas. in parts of central florida i've seen tons of them. also in houston at the memorial arboretum you can hardly walk a step without causing one to scurry through the pine needles and leaf litter.

[ET Awful]

9. I thought skinks were small smelly mammals, half skunk, half mink

:) :) :)

[StopTheMorans]

11. no, that's Quinn

:P

[ET Awful]

29. Impossible, Quinn is fat and has an obsessive/compulsive

cleanliness/smell good streak :)

[htuttle]

10. Isn't that what Inspector Clouseau called these?

"Stand back Cato! It is a skink!"

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. my brother had 2 of them

[On the Road]

14. They Have Skinks in the East

but they're smaller than the one you described and very skinny. Cute little lizards -- one of the few species you see in Maryland. You must have seen a larger species.

http://re2.mm-a.yimg.com/image/169737033
Five-Lined Skink

[SweetLeftFoot]

15. Aussie skinks

Some of the Aussie skinks can drop their tail to get away from predators. Do US skinks do that too?

[Sporadicus]

23. Yep, These Lose Their Tails Readily Also

My cats learned that skinks shed their tails without much provocation, and it became one of their favorite indigenous foods. They would torment the skink until the tail was jettisoned, let the guy run away, then chow down on the still-wiggling tail.

[SweetLeftFoot]

25. Heh

Do yours climb up on the walls and roof and stuff too? Inside that is.

[Sporadicus]

33. I Never Encountered Them in the House Alive

and neither did my wife, or else I would have heard blood-curdling cries of terror! I have found them long-deceased in my garage, however, thoroughly dessicated & crispy.

[SweetLeftFoot]

35. Northern Australia

and in Asia, they come inside and stay on your walls. They are good to have - they eat all the insects that harrass one. Still, the translucent type can be freaky. Its weird lying in bed and watching the beating heart of a lizard that sticking upside down to your celing.

[Lost4words]

26. WOW drop their tails, our episode didnt go that far,

the skink scurried away intact. But we often find a still wiggiling lizard tail from time to time.

[FizzFuzz]

16. SKINK

a dink a dink
a dink-a dink
a dink-a dooooo

[Wilber_Stool]

17. I've got the prettiest blue tailed skinks

running around here in western NC. They're about four or five inched long with blue to violet blue tails. They are really quick so your cat is to be commended. Good catch.

[Squatch]

19. Five-lined skink...

Check out my previous post

[Coyul]

27. I have I have

Used to own a pet store. We sold them as pets, but they aren't the most cuddly of creatures....

C

[Lost4words]

30. You cant help but learn things when you post on DU!

Gotta Love DU, gotta Love DU'ers

8643

[NV Whino]

31. Have a lot of them here

We have the blue-tailed variety. Interesting critters. Scare the bejesus out of me until I see the legs or blue tail--very snake like movement. The blue-tailed skink is immortalized on McEvoy Olive Oil bottles.

On edit: one of my cats caught one. I rescued it, now minus tail. It scampered away... and up my pant leg. Creepy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. That's big! Only one I've seen around here is the 5-lined skink,

only about 4-5 inches long, skinny and fast.

[jukes]

36. many

in the GA mountains. wetblack w/ vivid yellow spots. very pretty .

[American Tragedy]

37. I had a skink for about a year or so when I was a kid

[Her Blondness]

38. We have lots of skinks in Florida

When I was a kid, we used to catch anole lizards all the time and play with them. We always tried to catch the pretty shiny slinky skinks, but they were too damn fast.