Eastern Three-lined Skink

Latin Name: Bassiana duperreyi (Skink of the Bassian subregion, after L.I. Duperrey)

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

Distribution: 100,000-300,000 square kilometres, from south eastern South Australia
                       to Tasmania, Victoria - including Bushy Park Wetlands, and up the east
                       coast of NSW to Queensland.

Habitat: Moist upland plateaus, slopes and ridges in generally drier southeastern areas,
               to cool and temperate lowlands. The Skink is also found in vegetation of heath
               or tussocks on poorer sandy soils, usually with an overstorey of open woodland
               (including mallee-form eucalypts) or open forest. It prefers a site protected
               from strong winds by rocks, tussocks or bushes.

Description: This species has a well developed dark vertebral stripe and narrow whitish
                      upper lateral and midlateral lines, usually dark-edged on both sides.
                      The remainder of the back and sides are olive brown. In common with
                      other Skinks, each leg has 5 toes. If pursued by a predator, the tail is
                      shed and left writhing on the ground to hopefully divert the attention of
                      the hunter and thus elude capture.

Length: Head and Body Length to 7cm, Total Overall Length to 19cm.

Eastern Three-lined Skink

Food: Also known as the Bold-striped Cool-skink, it forages for insects and spiders
           around and under tussocks, fallen timber and embedded rocks.

Breeding: The female lays three to eight eggs in mid-December to early January and
                  these hatch in late summer. In South Australia communal nests containing
                  over 35 eggs have been found in well-embedded wood in moist coarse
                  sand with abundant fine organic material.

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