How Does the Blue-Tongued Skink Work?

These blue-tongued lizards look like snakes with stubby legs -- and that's just one feature they use to make predators think they're more dangerous than they are. Learn more (including why they can make great pets for an experienced owner) in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/blue-tongued-skink.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff.
Lauren Vogelbaum. Here looking for a reptile to keep as
a pet whose heart is as true blue as its tongue.
You may need to look no further than the aptly
named blue tongued skink. Certain subspecies of blue tongued skinks

(00:22):
are intelligent and personable critters that may even enjoy limited
interaction with humans in the wild. Blue tongued skinks are
found in the warm sandy areas and grassy savannah like
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

(00:43):
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

(01:04):
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,

(01:26):
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

(01:50):
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.

(02:14):
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

(02:38):
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

(03:00):
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.

(03:21):
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,

(03:42):
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.

(04:07):
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

(04:28):
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

(04:49):
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,

(05:10):
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,

(05:33):
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.

(05:55):
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,

(06:16):
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,

(06:39):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.