Skinks have a small head, small legs and cylindrical body
Don't be intimidated by its tiny legs, skinks are very agile lizards
Emerging from its thick foliage hideaway in search for insects
Retreating into the thick cover of leaves
When carefully concealed in the foliage, it looks like a snake
Continuing in its search for food in the pathway
It was a bright but cool early afternoon, as I was conducting a site visit, when I got to observe a few shiny, slim and sleek reptiles emerging and retreating into the cover of thick foliage. These reptiles appear like small, dark colored snakes but the presence of their tiny legs revealed their true reptile identity. In the back area garden patches of a premiere location in the heart of Down Town Dubai, I was able to observe the emergence of ocellated skinks along the garden pathway. The skinks were busy setting up ambushes to capture insects for their afternoon delights.
OCELLATED SKINK, Chalcides ocellatus (REPTILIA: SQUAMATA: SCINCIDAE)
Ocellated skinks are reptiles which have a small head, cylindrical body, and 5 tiny toes on each of their legs. Adult skinks can measure 15 to 30cm. These lizards exhibit a wide variety of coloration patterns.
DISTRIBUTION of OCELLATED SKINKS
Ocellated skinks are reported to be present in Greece, Italy, Malta, regions of North Africa, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
BIODYNAMIC NOTES
These reptiles are very agile and are primarily INSECTIVORES (feeds mainly on insects and related arthropods). They feed on locusts, crickets. ants, beetles, isopods. spiders, centipedes and insect larvae. They can also eat small lizards and also the tails of the younger lizards.
DO NOT kill these reptiles as they are important predators of insects.
Females give birth to live young larvae (VIVIPAROUS).
The ocellated skinks are not aggressive to humans, NONVENOMOUS and does not carry pathogenic disease causing organisms.
It was a truly an awesome afternoon encounter observing these ocellated skinks.
SPECIAL THANKS to Mr. MJ Dela Pena of Kendah Pest Control for sharing the location of the garden patch where the skinks are thriving and also for additional pictures.
Awesome creatures! Awesome CREATOR!
Thanks for your support and careful attention.
If you need Pest Management Training, Technical Field Support, On-Line and On-Site Consultancy, please feel free to send me an email: odelon.reyes@gmail.com
Helpful little article. Now I know what they are in my garden in JVT. Thanks for the observations!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment MJD! Hopefully you will see more of the beauty of these awesome creatures in your garden and not fear their snake like appearance.
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