Mother Lizard

The prehensile-tailed skinks that lived in the back of the reptile house were two of my favorite lizards in the collection.  They were curious, personable, engaging, and always seemed to enjoy climbing up my arms and over my shoulders as I serviced their enclosure, hosing down everything to create the high-humidity environment that they enjoyed.  That is, until that one day that they weren't.

I'd opened the enclosure door (their habitat was tall and glass-encased, reminding me of a shower stall) and was surprised not to see them out and about.  When I peeked into a hanging tube of cork bark, I was barely able to pull my face back in time before the female lunged out and clamped her jaws shut on the space where my nose had been seconds before.  I spotted the male too at this point.  His glare was also decidedly unfriendly.

When I reported this change in behavior to the curator, I was told, "Sounds like they had a baby last night."  And, sure enough, when the female was eventually coaxed out of the log, inside was a perfect little copy of the parents.  Well, not *that* little.  Seeing the offspring, it reminded me of an adult human woman having given birth to an elementary schooler.  Unlike some of the other reptile babies that we had, this one came as a slight surprise, as there were no eggs.  

Lots of lizards and snakes (no turtles or crocodilians) give live birth - all of the boas and most of the vipers, for example.  In some cases, the eggs are retained inside the body and hatch there before emerging from the mother as free youngsters.  In others, such as the prehensile-tailed skink, there's a placental birth, as in with mammals.  In many of these species, there is no parental care, or at least not much, while this species again shows extensive protective care of its (usually) single large young - again, more like a mammal than a lizard.

Mom and dad eventually settled back down, responding well to my temporary keeping philosophy of "drop the food and leave them alone."  They eventually decided to become friendly again, but did it on their terms, which I was fine with.  Baby followed their lead and eventually became quite the little snuggle-bug as well.  Watching the family grow together was a fascinating glimpse into the social and parental life of a group of animals that, rightly or wrongly, we seldom think of as especially caring.