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Snake-eyed skink

Ablepharus kitaibelii · Europe’s tiny skink that never blinks, because its eyelids are a permanent window.

A tiny bronze snake-eyed skink among twigs and dry ground
Snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii).Photo: Bouke ten Cate · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ablepharus means “without eyelids”, which isn’t quite right. The lower eyelid has become a fixed transparent window fused over the eye, much like the “spectacle” of a snake. That is where the common name comes from.

It is one of very few skinks native to Europe. Small, bronze and very quick, it is easily missed as it threads through dry leaves on sunny slopes.

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