sky

What do the kiwis call those little lizards over here, there's loads on our land at the mo and they're very cool

Apple12

Geckos or skinks...
http://www.reptiles.org.nz/faqs.htm
http://www.reptilepark.co.nz/nzlizard.htm
Just the coolest little animals =)

sky

SKINKS that's the one!
It was on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't think of the right name for them!
Thank you

sky

Do they smell?

It's just that there's this really nasty sicky musky smell on part of our land and I noted there were lots of these skinks making an appearance just about the same time I noticed the smell. Or is it possum ... or deer ... anyone?

Boopy

That's your septic tank leaking.

sky

Nope, we don't have one even on the land yet ... it's just a big bare block of land with pine trees on some of it at the mo

mazi

I don't think they smell, Sky. They are lovely though - have you heard of the green green-blooded skink? I'm not sure if that particular brand is in NZ but they have green blood! As you might guess from the name.

sky

The ones we have on our land are lovely and brown, their skin is so slick, I love them, they're so different.

cottageinthesky

We had loads of skinks in the garden of our last house - hot&dry seems to do it for them - unfortunately, my cat was a passionate skink hunter - they shed their tails to avoid capture, so I'm sure we had the biggest colony of tailless skinks in Wellington! A friend read somewhere that skinks lay down fat in their tails to keep them going during the winter - as she also had a skink-hunter, she put down dishes of sugar water in the autumn in a vain hope she could fatten up her skinks for the winter...

Skinks are pointy nosed, sleek things - geckos have broader heads and are more matt finished - I woke up one morning and put on a pair of socks I'd left by the bedside the night before - in one was something cold, clammy and ... alive I tore off sock and something squirmy flew through the air and plopped on the carpet - you've guessed .... a gecko - don't know which one of us was more horrified ....

When we moved, I found a flat, dessicated skink underneath a rug - looked a bit like one of those brooches that grannies wear - momentarily, I thought about painting it and putting a pin on it