Reptiles
Great Plains Skink
Plestiodon obsoletus · also called Great Plains skinks
A young Great Plains skink drags a strikingly vivid blue tail behind it as it slips beneath a rock, a colour that will fade to something far less noticeable by the time it reaches adulthood. For now, that bright tail does exactly what it is supposed to, offering a predator a tempting, expendable target well away from the rest of the lizard.
Overview
The Great Plains skink, Plestiodon obsoletus, is a large, smooth-scaled lizard native to grassland and semi-arid habitat across the central United States. It shelters beneath rocks and in loose soil, emerging to forage during warmer daylight hours.
A blue tail with a job to do
The vivid juvenile tail colour fades with age, but while it lasts, it works as intended, drawing a predator’s attention toward a body part the skink can afford to lose and regrow rather than risking the rest of itself.
Status
Least Concern — widespread and stable across suitable grassland and semi-arid habitat throughout the central United States.
Great Plains Skink: common questions
Why does a young Great Plains skink have a blue tail?
A young Great Plains skink has a strikingly vivid blue tail that gradually fades and becomes considerably duller as the lizard matures into adulthood, a colouration pattern shared with several other skink species during the juvenile stage and generally thought to help direct a predator's attention toward the more expendable tail rather than the lizard's body.
What happens if a predator grabs a Great Plains skink by the tail?
Like many other lizards, a Great Plains skink can voluntarily detach its tail if seized by a predator, and the still-wriggling detached tail serves as a distraction that gives the rest of the lizard a chance to escape, with the tail then gradually regrowing over time, though typically not in exactly its original form.
Where does a Great Plains skink spend most of its time?
A Great Plains skink spends a considerable portion of its time hidden beneath rocks, within loose soil, or inside burrows, generally emerging to actively forage for insects and other invertebrates during warmer daylight hours before retreating again to shelter as conditions change.
How big does a Great Plains skink get compared with other skinks in its range?
The Great Plains skink is among the larger skink species found within its central United States range, reaching a substantially greater size than several smaller skink relatives that share similar grassland and semi-arid habitat across the same general region.