Plestiodon elegans – let’s all focus on the tail

Thanks to this website I identified this skink as P. elegans. The difference to a similar-looking species, P. quadrilineatus, is the forking line on the head. So beautiful, and two of those. Amazing! Plus, our skink was a very patient foto model, unlike other skinks that are famous for running meg-fast.

But then what? This genus is distributed all over the world, and many of its members have blue tails. Telling from a quick picture search, easily ten Plestiodon species have that blue tail! The blue color though will fade as the lizards get older. Why is that?

Here is an article about why the color fades over time. It’s very interesting to read, though it is not about skinks in particular, but about the coloration of lizards! Seems the blue color directs the attraction of visual-oriented predators (e.g birds) to the tail. Like many lizards, skinks can drop their tail to escape (autotomy), and then grow a new one. The short-term blue coloration must have to do with a different, more risky lifestyle (need of more food, lesser escaping skills?) of young skinks (and other lizards). So living a risky life calls for the blue tail, more laid back living grown-ups more rely on the camouflage of being brown. There might also come things like communication (leave me alone, I´m not mature yet) into play.

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The article I read is this one:

Dror Hawlena, Rami Boochnik, Zvika Abramsky, Amos Bouskila, Blue tail and striped body: why do lizards change their infant costume when growing up?, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 17, Issue 6, November 2006, Pages 889–896, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arl023