Cunningham's Skink
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| Cunningham's Skink | ||||||||||||||
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 Skink basking in the sunlight
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| Egernia cunninghami (Gray, 1832) |
Cunningham's Skink (Egernia cunninghami) is a large skink species native to southeastern Australia. It can reach up to 30 cm in length, and may be confused with blue-tongued lizards. They have a distinctive keel on each scale, which gives them a slightly spiny appearance. It prefers to live on rocky outcrops in woodland, and is a diurnal omnivore. There is currently research being done on the isolated population that inhabits the southern Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia. This population is considered vulnerable due to the fragmented (disjunct) distribution of the 'colonies'. There is evidence that at least one of these colonies has totally disappeared. It is more common within suitable habitat along the southeastern coast and ranges of Australia.
Like some other reptiles the species it is viviparous, giving birth to six or more live young in a litter.
[edit] References
- Australian Faunal Directory. Egernia cunninghami
- Museum of Victoria. Cunningham's Skink fact sheet
