I spent a lot of time trying to understand just HOW many lines the Many-Lined Skink has, enough that the word “many” stopped looking like a word (it still doesn’t to be honest). The internet really didn’t have a good answer for me, which might explain the name – why be specific? There are two subspecies of this animal that live in Colorado: one that lives in the eastern part of the state, especially in the sandy soil of the Arkansas River Valley, and one that lives in rocky soil in the southern part of the state. The latter of these received its Euro-American identification from Edward Drinker Cope, a 19th century American scientist who gave a Latin name to over 1000 vertebrate species but is much more famous for his role in the Bone Wars.
Speaking of, where’s our prestige television version of that? Based on his mustache alone, Cope should be played by Timothy Olyphant.
Back to the Many-Lined Skink, who also deserves its own prestige television show about its life cycle. Depending on latitude and altitude, these animals are active between February-April and September-October; otherwise they are hibernating underground. Breeding occurs in the spring, shortly after emerging from hibernation, and over the summer, females lay 3-9 eggs in a burrow. The female stays with the eggs, regulating their temperature by covering them with vegetation and transferring some of her body heat to them after basking. She will stay with her babies for several days after they hatch.
Like many of the lizards we’ve discussed here, these fellows have a tail that is autonomous of the body and can be detached in order to escape from predators. Who those predators are is not fully documented, but many are seem to be raptors like the American kestrel.
I didn’t have a lot of time to make a drawing today so please enjoy this silly sketch where it looks more like the kestrel is holding a dagger than a lizard tail.