Mystery Lizard

[coferj]

A friend was telling me about a lizard that is hanging around his house, and I have not heard of anything like this in AL. It's about a foot long, red/auburn head, large mouth, about as big around as a half dollar or so, and the base color is a dark green. Any ideas on what it may be? Thanks.
[addsig]

[morti]

Did It look similar to this lizard?



Thiat is a pic of a Broad headed skink. It ranges throughout the southeast and the red head coloration occurs in males during breeding season.

I got this info and the pic from the SPARC - Student Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation page. This was stop # 23 on their Amphibians and Reptiles of the South East project.

-Morti.

[addsig]

[coferj]

How do they do as pets? He has confirmed that that is what it is...and we are thinking of making it the "household pet". Thanks again.
[addsig]

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

[morti]

I personally don't know about how well they do as captives but this is the sparks page I got thie above info from:

http://www.parcplace.org/education/sparc/trip23.htm

This page was put together by UGA

http://www.uga.edu/srel/broad.htm

I would think that their care is similar to that of the 5 lined skink since they are similar animals occupying the same niche. You mite check out ReptileHouse's care sheet on 5 lined skinks:

http://www.reptileallsorts.com/basic-flskink-cs.htm

Good luck!
-Morti

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

My one cent...

They are highly arboreal, so ear that in mind when considering a cage for them...

He's probably fairly old (for a lizard) at that size (I beleive the largest recorded size is 13" but I don't know if that's overall or SVL) so he might not acclimate well to captivity...

but if you notice he doesn't, you can always release him back where you found him...
[addsig]

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

	Arboreal Arboreal is a word meaning "related to or resembling trees". Its meaning comes from the Latin arbor, meaning tree.<br> In biology, an arboreal animal is one which inhabits or spends large amounts of time in trees or bushes.