Do you have an explosion of little lizards in your garden? This reporter does. Every foray into the backyard is accompanied by hurried scurrying in every direction. But is it an anomaly or part of the standard cycle?
Garden skinks are beloved of cats and little boys. They’re also called droptail lizards or if you really want, lampropholis guichenoti.
Taronga Zoo reptile specialist Peter Harlow said there were indeed likely to be lots about at the moment because it was hatching time.
“They lay their eggs in October or November in Sydney and they’re all hatching about now,” he said. Their white pea-sized eggs are laid in a clutch under rocks, in cracks in walls, under logs. “Anywhere moist and humid. The shell is rubbery and tends to be grey or brown by the time it hatches due to being in the dirt.”
He said they may be more visible in warm overcast weather as they stay out basking all day. “On hot sunny days they’re in and out of the sun all the time (as they can’t stay in direct sun for more than about a minute).”
If your kids catch one, they eat flies, ant babies, insect eggs, soil invertebrates (such as worms), and little spiders and cockroaches if they can overpower them. Water-wise it’s thought they sip dew, and get some from the insects they eat.
WIRES volunteer Vickii Lett said when there’s an explosion of them it would mean either conditions were really good that year or their predators were having a bad year.
“The yellow faced whip snakes – the garden skinks are just about all they eat. You see them on the flats, and up at Kurrajong.” She said the whip snakes were often mistaken for brown snakes, but weren’t poisonous. “They have a yellow teardrop mark near their eye and they’re skinny, up to about 60cm long.”