Weasel Skink

Latin Name: Saproscincus mustelina (mus'-tel-een'-ah: "weasel-coloured rotten skink")

Class:Reptilia     Order:Squamata-Sauria     Family:Scincidae     Genus:Saproscincus.

Distribution: 100,000-300,000 square kilometres. The Weasel Skink is restricted to a
                       coastal strip from Brisbane to Melbourne, including Bushy Park Wetlands.

Habitat: Moist and humid shaded ground conditions including rainforest, overgrown gullies,
               heathland, closed shrubland, and sub-alpine tussock grassland. Stones and rotted
               logs, or densely matted ground vegetation and leaf litter are usually present.

Description: It is brownish grey to dark brown with larger dark flecks and smaller pale
                      flecks. There is a distinctive white or pale mark that slopes downward
                      from behind the eye. It has a body sheen in common with other skinks.
                      The female is larger and is usually quite uniformly coloured, while the
                      slightly smaller male often has a darker upper lateral zone.

Length: Head and Body Length to 6cm, Total Overall Length to 16cm.

                                        Weasil Skink

Food: It forages for spiders, amphipods, isopods and insects - including larvae, in a
           distinctive, sneaking, secretive manner and it is conspicuously active only in the
           evenings and on warm days in the early morning, or during overcast weather.

Breeding: The female lays from two to seven eggs per clutch, between late spring and
                  late summer; second clutches tend to have fewer eggs. The most frequently
                  chosen sites are under litter and matted vegetation or under overgrown stones.

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