A Sly Pig Skink comes to visit

I should acknowledge the late, and definitely great, AD, who made the original reference to his mate by the name of Cunning ham as "Sly pig".

We rarely get Cunningham's Skink around our block and when we do it is only a single specimen, rather than the amusing heaps that others report.  However when I returned home from blitzing (posts to come on that) Frances whisked me into the garage where a Skink was laid up on a windowsill - presumably knocking over the blowies which congregate there.

Before I could get a snap of that it dived down and hid in a cooler bag.
This was actually quite useful because I could zip the cover on the bag and carry it outside.
 It seemed a bit reluctant to leave its new home!
 And when it did leave it dived straight back towards the garage.  It couldn't quite force its way under the door so just wedged itself into the gap between the door and the brickwork.
 This is apparently a common behaviour (although in the bush they substitute crevices in rocks for the garage fittings).  The scales on the skink are such that it becomes difficult for predators to winkle them out.

Not being a predator, I managed to extricate it.  As evident from the comparative size of reptile and hand they are reasonably large animals.  It felt nice and warm - possibly from sitting in a warm window for a while.
 I like the expression on its face.  At the risk of a world class anthropomorhism I could attach a thought bubble along the lines of "Are you ever going to let me go?"
When I did release it it headed straight for some shade and then behind our gas bottles.

Comments

Flabmeister said…
G'day Isabelle. As explained in the first paragraph, it is a Cunningham's Skink.

Martin
15 December 2016 at 06:04:00 GMT+11
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