Blotched blue-tongued skink

Where the eastern blue-tongue is a creature of warm suburbs, the blotched blue-tongue takes on Tasmania and the chilly highlands of the south-east. It is dark, with pink, cream or orange blotches. Highland females give birth to fewer, larger young (about five) than lowland females (about 11).

It shares the family habit of flashing a blue tongue and hissing when cornered, and like all blue-tongues it gives birth to live young. In cold places, the leading explanation goes, carrying young inside the body and basking for both is safer than leaving eggs in cold ground.