How Does the Blue-Tongued Skink Work?

regions of Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia. They'll often dig a burrow with their snouts or legs, or find an abandoned one to live in. They look very much like snakes with stubby legs, which they used their advantage for the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke Norris and Nagelae, an educator at the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania. As she explained, skinks are a fairly harmless animal. They aren't poisonous, they don't have big teeth,

they can't constrict their food or anything. So when there are predators like hawks around, one of their biggest defenses is to pretend to be something a little scarier. In their case, it's a snake. The skink has a type of light sensing organ called a parietal eye on the top of its head that can detect when a shadow passes over, thus sensing a predator flying by. Nagelaei said, the skink will actually tuck their tiny legs under their body.

They will actively slither around, very similar to a snake. They're going to stick their tongue out and try to slither their way away from predators. The skinks also have the ability to lose their tails and regrow them. These guys, for sure have quite a few defenses against predators, and that actually includes their eponymous blue tongue. In nature, vivit colors often means something is highly toxic. Think jewel toned poisonous tree frogs, bright banded venomous snakes, or the red

caps on some poisonous mushrooms. The phenomenon is called apissematism. It's basically a warning sign to potential predators. Don't even try it, I'm not worth the effort. The blue tongued skink employs the same technique, though it's an ecological fake out. That vibrant blue tongue looks gnarly, but these guys are not toxic. Blue tongued skinks can grow to between twelve and twenty four inches long that's thirty to sixty centimeters,

about half of which can be tail. They have wide, flat heads and thick bodies, often patterned in silver, yellow, brown, or black in contrasting bands or irregular sections. That blue tongue is wide and sort of bluntly triangular like their heads. It's nearly impossible to tell the difference between a male and female because their reproductive organs are internal, though you

can get a blood test to determine the sex. Speaking of reproduction, blue tongued skinks are ovoviviparous, which means the eggs are carried and hatched inside the female, which then birth's live offspring, usually ten to fifteen youngsters at once. Nagola said, we think it's all about energy saving. Laying eggs takes a toll on the animal's body. It's biologically expensive because they need to eat a lot of nutrients.

When an animal is ovo viviparous, they retain the eggs and reabsorb a lot of the nutrients after they give birth. It eliminates a lot of the waste. It's an efficient way to give birth to their offspring. Skinks also give the illusion of looking slimy because of their sleek scales,

but they're far from it. Nagolay said, whenever I'm talking about skinks to children, I always have children feel their fingernails because skinks scales feel exactly like your fingernails do, and that's because they're made out of the same stuff keratin a blue tongue. Skinks are omnivores, meaning they eat

a little bit of everything, veggies and meat. Nagolay said, for our skinks here at the zoo, they get a big salad and we feed them lots of insects at crickets, and the insects are often and dusted with supplements and vitamins to make sure that they're getting all the extra nutrients they need. We also feed them something called a reptilolink. It's kind of a mix of veggies and meat for them and looks like a little sausage. Our skink really

loves them. The blue tung skink at the Elmwood Park Zoo is named Sydney, and he's estimated to be seventeen years old. In captivity, blue tongued skinks will often live up to twenty years or longer. Sydney is one of the animals in the zoo's educational collection, meeting the public as one of the Ambassador animals, Nagela said, Sydney does lots of programming. He goes out to meet lots of children and adults of all ages. We do educational programming and we talk a lot about pet care and doing

research about their habitat and things like that. On that note, although blue tong skinks can make great pets, they're probably not a good choice for first time pet owner. Nagolie explained, you have to pay attention to their lighting and heating requirements. If blue tunged skinks don't get the appropriate kelci and appropriate lighting which helps them metabolize the calcium, they can

develop metabolic bone disease. They really need UV lighting to help them turn calcium into something usable to stay strong, or they can develop calcium deformities and disease. Also, because they grow to two feet long or half a meter, they really need to be kept in a very large terrarium. But she also said that temperamentally speaking, a blue tongue

skinks are jolly good fellows. Quote. Sidney really loves to explore new places, he loves to hunt for his crickets, and although I wouldn't necessarily call it affectionate, you can build a relationship with reptiles, which I think a lot of people don't think of. When you think of scaly creatures, you know, your first thought is an, oh, we can

be friends and hang out. But they definitely have their own unique personalities and even though some of them may not be the cuddliest, they might not curl up with you, although some definitely do. They're a real joy to work with. You can really tell that they have a certain intelligence to them. According to most experts, the best species to keep as a pet is the northern blue tongued skink.

The cost of a healthy one should run between one hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty dollars, though that's just the animal itself. Other things you'd need include a sixty gallon aquarium tank, a heating and lighting element, and material for the skink to burrow into. Today's episode is based on the article The Blue tongue Skink has a heart of Gold on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Patti Resmusen. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership

with how stuffworks. Dot Com is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.