Do You Know About Prehensile-Tailed Skinks?
Greetings!
This week is rushing by in a blur of vet appointments, work, family stuff, and having the finishing touches done on our deck project. We leave next weekend for a three-week RV trip with Max and Jasper with our destination being a work event for my wife’s job. Not exactly our dream vacation but should be a fun trip, anyway. My kiddos will be watching after Kola and our house. While we are gone, my daughter leaves to start her 2-month internship about 5 hours away. So much going on!
I don’t think I shared my latest stained-glass piece. This was something challenged myself to put together from my glass scraps left from previous projects. I like the way it turned out.
My biggest lesson learned this past week is that having a good soldering iron really makes a difference! My old, cheap one gave out in the middle of this project so I ordered a much better one. I got my old one working while waiting for the new one to be delivered and was able to finish most of this piece with it. The little I did with the new iron was enough to show me what a huge difference it will make in creating smoother bead lines in the future.
This Week
The most exciting event that happened in my life this past week was getting my first tattoo! I’ve been playing with ideas for the past year, collecting inspirational pictures of various dragons, then lizards, and several months ago, thanks to YouTube, I was introduced to prehensile-tailed skinks. This is the coolest skink ever, with its strong, triangular-shaped head and sturdy body. Suddenly, it all clicked into place and I knew this semi-dragon-like marvel would be the subject of my tattoo. I’d just need to find the right artist.
To my sister, Donna, if you want to wait and see my tattoo in person, skip the next part and scroll down to “What About…?
In case you don’t know, skinks are a type of lizard with short legs, a long body, and pretty much no neck. They are often described as being snakes with legs. I think they deserve a better description than that, especially prehensile-tailed skinks. Their true colors are shades of green but for my tattoo I really wanted blues added in. I love the way it turned out! My tattoo artist is Christy Fish (@fishface203 on Instagram), owner of Hard Case Tattoo in Portland, Oregon. Check out this link for the ultimate cool reveal video. I searched for a long time to find the right artist and WOW, did she deliver! She did such a beautiful job with my little guy.
Getting my tattoo was not as painful as I had expected. The shading (coloring in) was the worst part and even that wasn’t too bad. Fortunately, Christy is a great conversationalist and kept me entertained to keep my mind off the needles she was piercing into my skin. The tattoo took a little over three hours which was also better than I’d expected, telling myself it could take 5-6 hours.
As I write this, my skink friend is still bandaged up with the type of clear bandage used on burn victims. It was a bit messy, leaking a combination of blood, plasma, and ink for the first two days. It felt a bit like a sunburn for the first day and by the third day started itching mildly, which is where I’m at now. Later today, having waited a bit more than the required five days, I get to remove the bandages, and as my wife said, set my skink free. I’m excited!
What About…?
Prehensile-Tailed Skinks
In honor of my new tattoo, I thought it would be fun to share some prehensile-tailed skink facts with you. Unless you are a herpetologist (a scientist who studies reptiles and amphibians) or a big lizard fan, it’s unlikely you know much about these fascinating creatures and even less likely that you’ve accidentally come across one.
Prehensile-tailed skinks are also known as monkey-tailed skinks, Solomon Island Skinks, Zebra Skinks, and Giant Skinks.
The word “prehensile” means capable of grasping. Examples of animals with prehensile body parts include elephants (prehensile trunks), opossums and spider monkeys (prehensile tails), and seahorses (prehensile tails).
Prehensile-tailed skinks are native to the rainforests of the Solomon Islands, which is the only place they are found naturally. The Solomon Islands are to the northeast of Australia.
Prehensile-tailed skinks are arboreal, meaning they live in trees. They are also crepuscular, a fancy way of saying they like to come out during morning and evening twilight hours.
Prehensile-tailed skinks are the largest of over 1,500 species of skink. They can reach up to 32” (81 cm) in length with a weight of almost 2 lbs (0.9 kg).
Prehensile-tailed skinks are strictly herbivores, making them the only known vegetarian skinks. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to bite as a defense though, and with very powerful jaws, it’s best to avoid that situation.
Prehensile-tailed skinks have a strong sense of smell and very good eyesight.
The tail of a prehensile-tailed skink is a bit longer than its body length.
If you like this issue, please click on the ❤️ at the bottom or top of this message. It’s good to know you are there enjoying what I put out into the world.
Best Trivia Tidbit
Prehensile-tailed skinks are one of the very few reptiles to give live birth rather than laying eggs. They only have one to two babies no more than once per year. At birth, the baby skinks can be as long as one-third of the mother’s length. That would be like a human giving birth to a 6-year-old!
Have a wonderful weekend. Make someone smile. :)
Peace,
Dakota Duncan
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Did you know I wrote and illustrated a graphic novel? Check it out on my website: dakotaduncan.com or click on the book image below to go directly to Amazon.com.
