Reptiles
Shingleback Skink
Tiliqua rugosa · also called shingleback, bobtail, sleepy lizard, pinecone lizard, two-headed skink
The shingleback is a lizard built like a walking pinecone — slow, stumpy, and armoured in huge rough scales — and it keeps two secrets. Its fat tail is a fake head to fool predators, and it pairs with the same mate for decades, returning to that partner every spring.
Overview
Shinglebacks live in semi-arid shrubland, grassland, and open woodland across southern and western Australia. They are stout, 26–31 cm, covered in large overlapping scales, and mostly plant-eaters — flowers, fruit, leaves — with some snails, insects, and carrion. Slow and conspicuous, they rely on armour and bluff rather than speed.
The decoy tail
The short, blunt tail is shaped and coloured like the head, so the lizard looks two-headed. A predator striking the wrong end gets armoured, expendable tail instead — which also serves as a fat store for drought and winter.
A 20-year marriage
Each spring, a male and female reunite and spend the 8-week mating season foraging and basking side by side. Tagged pairs have been tracked reuniting for over 20 years, and a survivor may stay beside a dead partner — the strongest pair bond known in any lizard.
Bluffing
Cornered, the shingleback faces the threat, gapes to flash its bright blue tongue and pink mouth, hisses, and flattens out to look bigger. It is harmless but can bite hard with its snail-crushing jaws.
Status
The shingleback is Least Concern and common, but heavily killed on roads and trafficked for the overseas pet trade — every shingleback outside Australia was smuggled.
Shingleback Skink: common questions
Why does the shingleback have a tail that looks like its head?
It is a decoy. The shingleback's tail is short, rounded, and blunt, roughly the same size and shape as its head, and coloured similarly, so at a glance the lizard appears to have a head at both ends — one of its common names is the "two-headed skink." A predator such as a bird, dingo, or snake that lunges for what it takes to be the head may instead get a mouthful of the well-armoured, expendable tail, giving the lizard a moment to spin around and bite or to lumber to cover. The tail is also a fat store, swelling in good times and shrinking during drought and winter, so the shingleback can go long periods without food.
Do shinglebacks really mate for life?
They form the most durable pair bonds documented in any lizard, and among the strongest in any reptile. Each spring, for about eight weeks before mating, a male and female come together and travel, forage, and bask side by side, with the male usually following close behind the female. Long-term field studies in South Australia, using tagged animals, have found the same pairs reuniting year after year, with some partnerships lasting more than 20 breeding seasons. If one partner dies, the survivor has been observed nudging the body and remaining beside it for some time. Outside the mating season the pair separates and lives alone until the next spring, when they seek each other out again.
Is a shingleback dangerous, and does its bite hurt?
It is not dangerous and it is not venomous, but it can give a firm, painful bite. The shingleback has powerful jaws and broad, flat teeth adapted for crushing snail shells and tough plant matter, and a large adult that is cornered and decides to bite can pinch hard enough to bruise or break skin and will often hold on. Its first response to a threat is a bluff, though — facing the intruder, gaping to flash the blue tongue and pink mouth lining, hissing, and puffing up. Given the chance it would rather walk away. Handled calmly and supported properly, many shinglebacks become quite docile.
Can you keep a shingleback as a pet?
In Australia, shinglebacks are popular pet reptiles kept under state licence, and captive-bred animals are available; they are hardy, long-lived, personable, and manageable in size. Outside Australia they are rare and expensive because Australia bans the export of its native wildlife, which means essentially every shingleback in the overseas pet trade has been smuggled — the species is a repeated target of reptile trafficking, with animals stuffed into luggage and posted in parcels. Anyone offered a shingleback outside Australia should assume it was illegally taken from the wild. In captivity they need a large, dry, warm enclosure, UVB lighting, hides, and a mixed diet of greens, vegetables, fruit, snails, and some insects or low-fat dog food.