This is a Fence Skink or a Wall skink. They grow to 3 or 4 inches in length and are very common inside buildings and homes in Eastern Australia.
There are two schools of thought about the presence of these tiny lizards in the house. My sister-in-law finds them creepy and banishes them in disgust because of the droppings they leave.
I, on the other hand, enjoy their presence and take delight in watching them scout about the kitchen floor looking for dead insects or other edibles.
I'm aware of two skinks currently in residence. This one lives under a heavy chair in the living room while the other seems to alternate between the fridge and the dishwasher. I expect it's a safe and laid-back kind of life for them in a bird and cat-free environment.
Most mornings when I first appear in the kitchen I am greeted by my kitchen skink. Only when I approach him too closely does he dive under something for refuge. I consider that sweeping up his tiny dry droppings is a small price to pay for his assistance in keeping down the population of undesirable insects in the house.
Several other small lizard species will also venture indoors. The most common is the Gecko; he is a wizard at catching flies and mosquitoes on the walls and makes a pleasant little clucking sound to let you know he's about. Occasionally one becomes squashed by a closing door, but on the whole they are unobtrusive house-guests.
Although some species of skinks are recommended for keeping as pets, mine will always be in the 'Born Free' category. Because of their size, these tiny creatures are able to exit from the house as freely as they entered - under the door, or via the gaps around the plumbing system. (Together with the mice and the spiders -- and the cockroaches, beetles and ants.) A constant reminder that we are never very far from nature.
We've got numerous skinks in the house at the moment. I don't mind them but the Handbrake hates them on account of their numerous small indiscretions, or should that be excretions ? About a year ago one of them got caught in an orb spider's web near our front door and came to a very untidy end.
Posted by: ianh | February 19, 2006 at 12:05 PM
Speaking of the call of the gecko - I've got the feeling that the name 'gecko' is onomatopoeic for the click-cluk, or gek-ko sound they make. In Indonesia I have heard geckos called tjetjek. All these sounds sound pretty similar to me, once they are translated into ancient Greek!
Interesting that Bahasa Indonesia has the Tj
phoneme, don't you think?
Posted by: Tjilpi | February 19, 2006 at 05:31 PM
The picture of the orb spider is wicked looking and bigger than any spider I've ever seen. Skink is an interesting word, one which seems only to be vaguely familiar.
Met my first gecko that had taken up residence, though uninvited, in a family member's Hawaiian home. Don't think we have any on the mainland. The family was intrigued with her, then surprised one day to find 2 eggs in a tiny pottery piece barely large enough to hold them. She abandoned the eggs, so they established a suitable environment, after some research, where they hoped the eggs would hatch. Believe they were unsuccessful due to the eggs not having had adequate warmth for too long a period while the family waited hopefully for her return.
Do recall being told the word, gecko, was reflective of the sound they make. My phoneme transcription has been limited to American English, but have occasional contact with individuals from Indonesia. Will be interested, now, to hear them pronounce tjetjek. Wonder what the significance, Tjilpi, is of the Tj phoneme in Bahasa Indonesia, or perhaps that's not a matter to address.
The above same family lived in Indonesia, Sumatra, I believe, for a time some years ago. They had to leave behind a pet monkey to which they had become quite attached. They tried to insure their pet would not end up on someone's dinner table as the main course after they left. Not certain they ever knew for sure.
Posted by: joared | February 19, 2006 at 09:03 PM
I didn't know the origin of either of the words 'gecko' or 'skink', but just looked them up. The word gecko came from the Malay word ge'kok (imit.) in C18, while skink is a derivation of the Latin 'scincus' or Greek 'skinkos', both meaning 'lizard'.
The word skink is now used to describe 'any of a family of lizards commonest in tropical Africa or Asia, having an elongated body covered with smooth scales'.
A gecko is 'a small insectivorous terrestrial lizard of warm regions'.
Posted by: Jude | February 19, 2006 at 11:19 PM
the skinks sound like fine companions. i'd prolly try sit down conversations, at a distance comfortable for them.
Posted by: kim | February 21, 2006 at 04:34 PM
Jude, I love this post; I'm such a huge lizard fan.
I never considered letting them live inside, though. NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat, in fact I think it's a cool idea. I just never heard of house lizards before.
There are lizards everywhere out here in the desert, and they occasionally get inside the house, but I always put them back out, thinking they probably got in by mistake and didn't really want to be there. Now I wonder...
Posted by: Kit Hubert | February 23, 2006 at 02:50 AM
Great wordplay to have a kitchen skink. There's a famous Scottish soup called Cullen Skink http://www.seafish.org/plate/details.asp?catid=1&recipeid=104 which is very good. If you can't get smoked haddock, you could try lizard?
Posted by: Anna | February 24, 2006 at 11:16 AM
Thanks for the recipe, Anna; I love the name. It is another version of an old favourite I haven't made in ages - Smoked Haddock Chowder. My recipe also has bacon and cheese in it. I've printed out this one to try as soon as the cooler weather comes.
Posted by: Jude | February 25, 2006 at 12:18 AM
I love these little guys (and girls of course). They're everywhere here. But I'm curious. You wouldn't happen to know of any distribution maps online anywhere would you? I'm currently creating a calendar of animals in Australia (not necessarily native) with information on animals and I can't find much on the wall/fence skink for the life of me. :(
Anyways, nice that you allow them indoors. We don't get many indoors here (geckos on the other hand, we have a lot inside).
Posted by: Nyssa | October 31, 2006 at 04:15 PM
Hey I found you while I was looking for a picture of a house lizard cos there is a gecko on my window right now and I wanted to email a friend about it. I find lizards really freaky. Since I was a kid I was taught they are the most dangerous thing ever. lol. I like this post about lizards though thanks for it, it makes them seem nice. Good luck with your "born free" pets :-)
Blessings
Diana
Posted by: diana | November 09, 2006 at 03:00 AM
Lizards are really gross!! They love to eat your food remnants, so if you allow them to breed in your house they will start to eat up all the bread in the bread stand, etc etc....
I think it's very unhygienic of you to think it's a nice greeting when you see a lizard in your kitchen - it means he probably shat in your food or had a great time nibbling on something you might pick up to nibble too!
As for eating other insects... who are you kidding? Why are they in the kitchen or under the dining room chair? That's right: They prefer to eat human food and if they are full of human food, they will not eat insects!
This means they are 100% pest now, and being positive about having one in the house is as stupid as liking to keep houseflies and roaches at home.
And besides, when these lizards die, they really, really stink your place up.
KILL ALL LIZARDS!!
Posted by: Lizard hater | May 03, 2008 at 10:47 AM