Life History and Ecology of the Five-Lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatusFitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Science
Life History and Ecology of the Five-Lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatus
Fitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Eumeces fasciatus
Combats and pursuits have been observed most frequently the last week of
April and especially in the first two weeks of May. At this season
funnel traps set along rock ledges often caught two adult male skinks
together. In almost every instance one of the two confined males was
mutilated, with pieces of skin and flesh bitten from the tail and with
chin, snout, and neck scarred; most serious wounds were usually in the
sacral region or base of the tail or both. Often the wounds were so
severe that the skink died in a short time in captivity and presumably
others that were released died also.
On April 28, 1949, a large adult male skink, chased by another, ran out
in the middle of a trail and stopped. The pursuer stopped a few inches
from it, then after a long pause, retreated in the direction from which
it had come. For the five minutes that the pursued skink was watched, it
lay motionless, partly hidden by dry leaves, evidently seeking to avoid
further pursuit by concealment. I caught it without difficulty, and it
seemed weak and dazed, as if injured in the fight. Its reddish suffusion
was conspicuous, but not fully developed.
On May 3, 1949, an adult male having bright red facial suffusion was
observed searching persistently in ground litter; he was seen to find
and pursue a female, and to copulate. A few minutes after mating was
completed and the pair separated, a second male also searching in the
vicinity came within sight of the first one. The two noticed each other
at a distance of about 18 inches, indicating their awareness by their
more alert, jerky movements, and spasmodic vibrating of their tails. The
newcomer darted at the other, and for a moment they dodged and sparred.
As one broke away to run, the other seized it by the tail. They were on
an exposed tree root about an inch in diameter. The skink that was
caught twisted its body around underneath the root and seized its
adversary by the tail likewise, so that their linked bodies encircled
the root, each squirming to disengage itself from the other's jaws.
After a few seconds they did break apart, and then maneuvered briefly
menacing each other at close quarters, but they gradually moved away and
lost contact.
On May 10, 1949, two adult males were seen to approach each other
slowly, pausing for perhaps a minute when they were a little more than
one foot apart. Then one edged up to the other, and with a sudden lunge
seized it by the head. The one seized broke away with a vigorous jerk,
and promptly retaliated by biting the first one's head. After a few
seconds of rapid sparring and thrashing, they broke apart, and one
chased the other for several feet until it eluded further pursuit by
dodging and hiding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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