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This is a short tailed and slow moving species of blue-tongued skink found in Australia. It has a heavily armored body and can be found in various colors, ranging from dark brown to cream. It is often seen sunning itself on roadsides or other paved areas. The skink is known by a variety of common names such as bobtail, shingleback, or stump-tailed skink, bogeyes, and the Pinecone or Australian sleepy lizard. They have short, wide stumpy tails that resemble their head, and may confuse predators. The tail also contains fat reserves, which are drawn upon during hibernation in winter. The shingleback skink is an omnivore that eat snails, insects, carrion,and plants and spends much of its time browsing through vegetation for food.
The species was first described by John Edward Gray in 1825 as Trachydosaurus rugosus. It has since been reclassified as Tiliqua rugosa, herpetologists claim this species has more common names than any other lizard.
Tiliqua rugosa is a viviparous skink, giving birth to broods of 1 to 4 relatively large offspring. Unlike most lizards, the species tends to be monogamous extending outside the breeding season of September through November; such pairs have been known to return to each other every year for up to 20 years. Upon being born, the newborn young immediately consume their afterbirth. The young stay with their parents for several months before moving on, however they remain in close proximity forming a colony of closely related skinks. The male of a monogamous pair eats less while parenting, remaining alert and ready to give an alarm. Ref:Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stump-tailed_skink