Bob Barrett, age 11, of Phoenix, Arizona, for his question:
What are skinks and geckos?
Their names sound as if they might belong to visitors from an alien world. Actually the little fellows are genuine earthlings. If you chanced to meet one in the wilds, you would call him a lizard. Chances are he would be a skink, for his relatives are very numerous throughout the land. However, if you came across him in the warm and wondrous sands around Phoenix, Arizona, he just might be a gecko.
The skinks are the most plentiful little wild lizards in North America. About 20 species are found in the United States and farther north into central and western Canada. The largest has a slim slinky body five inches long plus six inches of tapering tail. If a hungry enemy nips off the end of his tail, he grows a new one, though it won't be quite as long as the original.
Most skinks wear dark scaly skins with paler stripes running from the nose straight back to the tip of the tail. There is a two striped skink and a five striped skink. And in Arizona, the eight striped skink enjoys life quite high on the sandy slopes. Young skinks can fool you because some species wear patches of color. And some of the old timers lose their pale stripes and turn dark all over.
The skinks are daytime lizards that enjoy basking in the sunshine. Their favorite menus include insects, spiders and worms. At night, they hide in burrows or under rocks. During the winter they hibernate underground hidden among stones or fallen logs. In most cases, the female skink lays .s ix to 18 eggs and, unlike most lizards, she broods on her nest until the frisky little ones hatch. A few of the skinks give birth to live infants.
In North America, the geckos are rarer than the skinks and seldom seen because they are nocturnal lizards. The few species we have are found in Florida, the western mountains and the southwestern deserts. Unlike the skinks, the geckos have very smooth flat scales and their skins shine like glass. Most of them are light blond, heavily speckled
Some geckos have padded toes and live among the trees. Around Phoenix, a gecko with freckles and another with brown patches hide among the warm rocks and in the soft sandy ground. Even in warm regions, these little lizards hibernate from October until May. The female lays two or three eggs during the summer. They are little eggs with rather brittle shells and she leaves them to hatch in the ground.
Both skinks and geckos make charming pets. It is fairly easy to capture a gecko and the gentle little creature is not likely to bite your hand. Catching a skink is more of a problem. This sprightly fellow is a fast runner and an artful dodger. What's more, when captured he is likely to fight and bite. However, both the skink and the gecko settle down and enjoy life in a comfortable terrarium. They need stones to crawl over and hide under. And their diet should include mealworms, ant larvae plus assorted bugs and grubs.