Reptiles
Blue-tongued Skink
Tiliqua scincoides · also called blue-tongued skink, blue-tongued lizard, blue-tongue
The blue-tongued skink is a lizard built like a sausage on stubby legs, common in Australian gardens, where it works its way through the snail population at a leisurely pace. It cannot run and it cannot fight, so when something threatens it, it opens its mouth and sticks out a startlingly bright blue tongue.
Overview
Blue-tongued skinks live across northern and eastern Australia, in woodland, grassland, scrub, semi-desert, and suburban gardens, with a separate subspecies in Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands. They are ground-dwelling and diurnal, sheltering under logs, rocks, and leaf litter, and they are omnivores — snails, slugs, insects, carrion, and a large amount of fruit and greenery, with strong jaws for crushing shells.
The blue tongue
The skink is slow, unarmed, and reliant on bluff. Threatened, it inflates, hisses, flattens itself, gapes to show a pink mouth, and thrusts out its broad blue tongue. The back of the tongue reflects ultraviolet far more strongly than the front, and the skink keeps it hidden until a predator is close, then flashes it — a startle tactic aimed at making a bird or snake flinch.
Live birth
Blue-tongues give birth to live young — 5 to 25 fully formed babies after a 3–4 month pregnancy, each independent within days. Live birth lets the female bask to warm her developing young rather than leaving eggs in the ground.
A popular pet
Placid, hardy, and long-lived (often 20–30 years), the blue-tongued skink is one of the most kept pet lizards. It needs a varied omnivorous diet, UVB light, warmth, and burrowing substrate, and it is a multi-decade commitment often underestimated by buyers.
Status
The blue-tongued skink is Least Concern and common, thriving even in cities, where it is valued as a natural snail and slug controller. Local hazards are cats, dogs, cars, and slug pellets.
Blue-tongued Skink: common questions
Why does the blue-tongued skink have a blue tongue?
It is a defensive bluff. The skink is slow, heavy, and has no venom and only a modest bite, so its main strategy against a predator is to look alarming. When something threatens it, the lizard inflates its body, hisses, gapes to show a bright pink mouth lining, and unrolls its broad blue tongue. Recent research found that the rear part of the tongue reflects ultraviolet light far more strongly than the front, and the skink keeps that part hidden until the last moment, then flashes it in a full display right as a predator closes in — a startle tactic timed to make a bird or snake flinch and hesitate long enough for the skink to escape or deliver a bite.
Are blue-tongued skinks venomous or dangerous?
No. They have no venom. A large blue-tongue can give a firm, bruising bite with its strong crushing jaws if genuinely cornered and grabbed, which can break skin, but it is not medically serious and the animal would far rather bluff and retreat. Blue-tongued skinks are generally placid and tolerate handling well, which is one reason they are among the most popular pet lizards. In Australian gardens they are considered beneficial because they eat large numbers of snails and slugs.
Do blue-tongued skinks lay eggs?
No — they give live birth, which is common among skinks in cooler and more variable climates. After a pregnancy of about three to four months, the female produces a litter of 5 to 25 (occasionally more) fully formed baby skinks, each a miniature of the adult and able to fend for itself within a few days. The young are born enclosed in a thin membrane that they break out of immediately, and the mother provides no further care. Live birth lets the female regulate the developing young's temperature by basking, rather than leaving eggs at the mercy of the ground.
What should you feed a pet blue-tongued skink?
A varied omnivorous diet that roughly mirrors the wild one — commonly cited as around 50% vegetables and greens, 40% protein (insects, lean meat, cooked egg, high-quality wet dog or cat food in moderation), and 10% fruit, adjusted with age. They also need calcium and vitamin supplementation, UVB lighting, a warm basking spot, and a substrate they can burrow into. They are hardy and long-lived — often 20 to 30 years — so they are a multi-decade commitment, and impulse buyers frequently underestimate that.