The Italian Three-Toed Skink
Chalcides chalcides



When it makes a rapid getaway, slithering in a zigzag fashion through grass and over rocks, the Three-Toed Skink could be mistaken for a snake.
In reality it is related to lizards and is a species of skink.
A typical feature of Italian Skinks is their highly reduced atrophied legs compared to the rest of their body.
The Three-Toed Skink has a 40 cm long serpentiform body with legs at the front which are no longer than a centimetre.
Its brown colour, which varies from olive green to grey and brown, the dark stripes running down its body, as well as its speed, make it difficult to notice the skink in its natural habitat, that is, humid grassy places and the cooler bushes of Mediterranean areas.
It is very sensitive to the cold and spends the winter sheltering in holes in the earth or cracks in rocks exposed to the south and only emerges in late spring.
For this very reason the Skink rarely inhabits mountainous areas.
It feeds mainly on insects and other invertebrates.
It does not lay eggs however the female gives birth to as many as 23 skinks at a time.
A feature which the skink shares with many other lizards is autotomy, that is the shedding of the tail in order to flee from the predator.